Democratic and Republican Jewish advocacy groups are flooding Jewish newspapers around the country with dueling ads on Barack Obama's support for Israel.

The National Jewish Democratic Council began running a full-page ad [PDF] Friday that touts Obama’s support for the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act of 2007 and his co-sponsorship of the Palestinian Anti-Terror Act. The ad is mostly blue and white (the colors of the Israeli flag) and runs under the headline "A New Year, A New Direction" -- an allusion to Rosh Hashanah.

The group released another print ad [PDF] today highlighting Obama's support for abortion rights. Both ads are running in Jewish newspapers "around the country," said Ira Forman, executive director of the Council, though he declined to say which ones.

The Republican Jewish Coalition has also been pumping money into print advertising in recent weeks, unveiling five new ads in the last month. While its Democratic counterpart has primarily stuck to positive messages about Obama or contrasted the two presidential candidates, the Republican group is leading a full-fledged assault on the Illinois senator's Israel credentials.

The group's latest print ad [PDF] -- released Friday -- alleges that several Obama associates are "pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, and even hostile to America." An ad from two weeks ago [PDF] highlighted Pat Buchanan's self-professed closeness to Obama's positions on Israel. Another spot from early-September [PDF] warned that "a naive and weak foreign policy has resulted in tragic outcomes for the Jewish people." That ad included a picture of Obama speaking before a large crowd in Germany this summer, perhaps insinuating which particular "tragic outcome" the coalition had in mind.

While Forman insisted that the Democratic group's ads are not meant to be responses to the Republican attacks, he did say that the RJC advertisements "take something with a grain of truth and wrap it in about 16 layers of deception."

"If we had nominated [former Israeli Prime Minister] Yitzhak Rabin, they would have been calling him anti-Israel," Forman said.

But RJC executive director Matthew Brooks defended the print spots, calling them "very successful" and adding that Web site traffic has gone "through the roof" since they began running.

The RJC also stirred controversy in mid-September when it sponsored a poll that asked voters to respond to a series of negative statements about Obama. Brooks said the poll was "normal market research" and noted that the handful of questions about Obama were a small part of the 82-question survey.