Candidates court Jewish support

But Clinton has baggage. She raised eyebrows throughout the Jewish community in 1999 with her embrace of Suha Arafat moments after the Palestinian made derogatory remarks about Israel. Clinton said she was listening to the speech -- given in Arabic -- through an English interpreter and did not understand what Arafat was saying.

Clinton also has to deal with some Jews' doubts about her husband's Middle East record. Many of them praise Bill Clinton's efforts at the end of his second term to bring Israelis and Palestinians together, but others say that he pressured Israel to offer too much.

But advisers in the Jewish community say that Clinton has said and done the right things since being elected to the Senate in 2000, including leader the effort in Congress to have the International Red Cross recognize the Israeli branch, Magen David Adom. "She hugged Arafat's wife, but things have evolved with the Palestinians," a Jewish official said. "And she has built a relationship with the Jewish community in New York that shows how she has evolved."

Barack Obama has been trying to take some of that support from Clinton and has made inroads with Jews opposed to the Iraq war. But he has faced questions about aligning himself with Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, who has defended the controversial book, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," which contends that pro-Israel activists have undue influence over American foreign affairs.

Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, the umbrella organization for American Jewish groups, said that Brzezinski is a concern to many in the Jewish community because of his positions on Israel. "But the question is what role he plays and what other advisers are involved," Hoenlein said.

The Carter effect
A version of the adviser game hurt Democratic nominee John Kerry in 2004 when he suggested that Carter could serve as a Middle East envoy in his administration. To many Jews, Carter is seen as an apologist for Palestinians; his latest book, "Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid," has only heightened that perception.

Jewish leaders say that candidates who associate themselves with advisers who are at odds with mainstream Jewish beliefs on the Middle East can have a tough time trying to convince Jewish voters that their personal viewpoints are different. "Especially if a candidate doesn't have a well-crafted position on an issue, or a long-enough track record, then obviously the thing is to see who's advising them," a Jewish official said. "Who are the voices that are attempting to influence them? Who has access to the candidate's ear?"

Kerry tried to defuse the criticism by touting his brother, Cam Kerry, who had converted to Judaism and was a campaign adviser. Similarly, Obama and Edwards have surrounded themselves with Jewish community leaders and supporters to offset the concerns that their controversial campaign aides have raised.

Obama advisers have said that concerns about Brzezinski have been overstated, and they stress that he will not be advising Obama on Israeli-Palestinian affairs. "He's not the uber-foreign-policy czar of the campaign," one adviser said. "Any candidate is going to be endorsed by people they don't agree with on other issues."

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