Bush takes veiled jab at Obama during speech in Israel

JERUSALEM — President Bush took the occasion of Israel's 60th anniversary on Thursday to compare his American political opponents to Nazi appeasers and brand them as too willing to negotiate with terrorists, remarks that Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama reacted to instantly as an attack upon him.

"We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history," Bush said in his 23-minute speech to Israel's parliament.

Bush has tried to stay out of the 2008 presidential race, and White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Thursday that he didn't mean to directly criticize Obama.