Bush suggests Obama wants 'appeasement,' foreign policy debate headed to FL

In Israel for its 60th birthday celebration, President Bush took a broad swipe at Democrat Barack Obama for his willingness to talk to adversaries of the U.S -- apparently aimed at undermining his appeal among Jewish voters.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," said Bush, without mentioning Obama's name. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."

The Obama campaign immediately responded and accused Bush of politicizing a solemn day in the state of Israel. "Obviously this is an unprecedented political attack on foreign soil,” Obama Communications
Director Robert Gibbs told CNN.

The debate over talking to our enemies is likely to shape the campaign if Obama is the nominee, and it particularly resonates in Florida, with its large Jewish and Cuban-American populations. Expect to hear more from Obama and Republican John McCain on foreign policy when they campaign in Florida next week. Obama is slated to address the Cuban American National Foundation on Friday.

"I would describe it as Senator Obama taking advantage of the prominent platform that is the CANF luncheon to talk about how he, as president, would make significant changes to the failed Bush foreign policies that have reduced America’s standing in the international community,'' said Obama spokesman Josh Earnest.

More on the candidates' upcoming visits to Florida here.