News Brief05:32 AM

(IsraelNN.com) Israel is facing its worst existential threat since the birth of the State, said Republican U.S. presidential candidate Senator John McCain on Wednesday, McCain said the combination of external threats by Iranian nuclear weaponry and the presence of terrorist groups on Israel's borders, plus the internal threat posed by political upheavel due to the corruption investigations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, comprises the greatest threat to Israel since 1948.

"My feeling about Israel today is that they are probably in many respects under a greater threat... than they've been in since their independence," he said, in a campaign speech in the United States, according to Reuters. McCain's rival for the U.S. presidency, Democratic Senator Barack Obama, is currently in Israel, where he visited Sderot on Wednesday stumping for American ballots from overseas voters.