Barack Obama’s detractors are trying to make hay out of an unsought endorsement by Nation of Islam Minister Louis Farrakhan, adding to the rumors and innuendo about the Democratic presidential candidate’s religious affiliations and casting Obama as a threat to Israel.

Farrakhan, who has drawn attention for calling Judaism a “gutter religion,” dubbed the Illinois senator the “hope of the entire world” on Sunday.

Obama was asked during a debate with Hillary Clinton Tuesday night if he would reject that support — but the Illinois senator at first hedged.

“I can’t say to somebody that he can’t say that he thinks I’m a good guy,” Obama said. “You know, I have been very clear in my denunciations of him and his past statements.”

Clinton then chimed in to say she rejected support from an anti-Israel group during her 2000 Senate run, and that Obama’s denunciation of Farrakhan is not as strong as a rejection.

Obama relented: “I have to say I don’t see a difference between denouncing and rejecting. There’s no formal offer of help from Minister Farrakhan that would involve me rejecting it. But if the word ‘reject’ Senator Clinton feels is stronger than the word ‘denounce,’ then I’m happy to concede the point, and I would reject and denounce.”

He earned the crowd’s applause, but his handling of the question could spell trouble.

An article in the latest edition of Newsweek reported that Clinton’s surrogates are already floating the word that Obama has a shaky commitment to Israel, despite accounts to the contrary from liberal American Jewish leaders.

The article recounted a conference call a Clinton adviser had with Jewish leaders in January, where she contrasted Clinton’s Israel credentials with Obama’s, noting that Zbigniew Brzezinski was Obama’s foreign policy adviser. Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s former national security adviser, told the magazine he only advises Obama on occasion — but he is controversial because of his defense of a recently published book about the power of the “Israel lobby” in Washington.

The article said Clinton operatives are also circulating e-mails questioning his relationship with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the recently retired pastor at Obama’s Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. The church magazine gave Farrakhan the 2007 lifetime achievement award for social justice (though Obama said he disagreed with the decision).

The Tennessee Republican Party also popped up with a brazen line of attack this week, releasing a statement titled “Anti-Semites for Obama” claiming Obama could pose a danger to Israel if he wins the White House.

Tennessee GOP Chairwoman Robin Smith said, “It’s time to set the record straight about Barack Obama and where he really stands on vital issues such as national security and the security of Israel.”

She invoked the Farrakhan remarks as evidence that “strongly” suggests “an Obama presidency will view Israel as a problem rather than a partner for peace in the Middle East.”

The Tennessee Democratic Party blasted the statement as “fear mongering.”

Obama is a Christian, but rumors about his Muslim background have persisted throughout the campaign, and have been used to suggest he won’t put America first or offer meaningful support to its ally Israel.

Obama’s mother was a white woman from Kansas, his father was Kenyan and he spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, a largely Muslim country. Obama has said his father did not practice though his grandfather converted to Islam.

Obama stood by his commitment to Israel Tuesday night, saying the reason he has strong support from the Jewish community in his hometown of Chicago is “because I have been a stalwart friend of Israel’s.

“I think they are one of our most important allies in the region, and I think that their security is sacrosanct, and that the United States is in a special relationship with them, as is true with my relationship with the Jewish community,” he said.

He said he “would not tolerate anti-Semitism in any form” and that he wants to rebuild a “historic relationship” between the black and Jewish communities.

Obama’s critics have cast the candidate as weak on terrorism, and as a means of impugning him, have taken to freely using his full name — Barack Hussein Obama — even though GOP front-runner John McCain has advised against it.

Smith used Obama’s full name in her statement, and radio talk show host Bill Cunningham used it three times while introducing McCain at a Cincinnati event Tuesday. During the vitriolic introduction, Cunningham called Obama a “hack, Chicago-style” politician and said the Illinois senator would “saddle up next to Hezbollah,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and North Korean leader Kim Jong Il if elected president.

McCain later apologized for Cunningham’s remarks. He said Wednesday that he has no control over outside groups who want to help him, but that he will pursue a “respectful debate” for the general election.

“I am not excusing anything that anybody does but that is not frankly something I can do (anything) about at this moment,” McCain said of the Tennessee Republican Party release.

The Tennessee GOP also posted a now-infamous picture on its Web site showing Obama wearing a white turban and robe presented to him by elders in Wajir, Kenya. That photo was posted Monday on The Drudge Report, which said the picture was being circulated by “Clinton staffers.”

Clinton denied that at Tuesday’s debate, and Obama said he’d take her at her word.

But Obama’s campaign beforehand blasted Clinton for engaging in “the most shameful, offensive, fear-mongering we’ve seen from either party in this election.”

FOX News contributor Kirsten Powers said Obama will be able to distance himself from Farrakhan.

“I don’t think he has problems with Jewish groups. He has humongous Jewish support,” she said. “He’s not Louis Farrakhan, he’s pro-Israel. He said that last night that Israel is a very important ally of the United States and he understands that.”

FOX News’ Mosheh Oinounou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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