Joe Biden reassured older Florida Jews that Barack Obama would be strong on Israel.
Biden, the Democratic nominee for vice president, was introduced by a Holocaust survivor at a speech before several hundred at a retirement community, The Associated Press reported.
“I am chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee,” said the longtime U.S. senator from Delaware. “I give you my word as a Biden, I would not have given up that job to be Barack Obama’s vice president if I didn’t in my gut and in my heart and in my head know that Barack Obama is exactly where I am on Israel. And he is.”
Biden also urged his audience to ignore Internet rumors that Obama is secretly a Muslim, calling the rumors “scurrilous.”
The Obama campaign has put significant effort into winning over Jewish voters who could prove to be a key voting bloc in the swing state of Florida. In an effort to establish his Jewish bona fides, Biden noted that his son married a Jewish girl, according to a report from ABC News.
“Look, my son married – and matter of fact, her, uh – my son married into the Berger family,” he said, referring to his son Beau Biden’s marriage to the former Hallie Berger. “We’re going to be mishpokhe before this all is over, I promise you.”
Hallie Biden’s mother Joan is reportedly Jewish, though Hallie was raised in both the Jewish and Christian faiths.
“By any objective fact, Israel is less secure today in the world than it was eight years ago,” Biden said. “I promise you … we will make it more secure.”
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