News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Major media outlets will be accompanying Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama on his trip to the Middle East, including Israel, next week, guaranteeing him wide coverage. Unlike Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain's trip earlier this year, Sen. Obama's aides are handling all the logistics for the media, and the Democratic candidate will visit Ramallah.

Sen. Obama is slated to visit the Western Wall, located in eastern Jerusalem, which was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. Sen. McCain has backed Jerusalem remaining the undivided capital of Israel unless Israel wants to decide otherwise. Sen. Obama recently astonished Arabs by stating the Jerusalem should remain undivided. After a furious backlash, he quickly backtracked and said that he meant it should not divided by barbed wire, as it was between 1948 and 1967, when eastern Jerusalem was occupied by Jordan.