PALIN: ‘ONLY FLAG IN MY OFFICE’ IS ISRAELI

President Peres of Israel yesterday met for the first time with Governor Palin and with Senator McCain, who called the veteran Israeli statesman “my old friend.” The warm handshake and exchange of broad smiles occurred during an international gathering known as the Clinton Global Initiative, hosted by President Clinton. “I wanted to meet you for many years,” Ms. Palin told Mr. Peres, according to an aide to the president. “The only flag at my office is an Israeli flag,” she was quoted as saying, “and I want you to know and I want Israelis to know that I am a friend.”

OBAMA, McCAIN, BUSH TO VISIT RENO

Senator Obama’s campaign said late yesterday that he will be in Reno, Nev., on Tuesday to discuss important issues facing the country. No details about the time or location have been released. Senator McCain also intends to be in Reno next Thursday. That time and place hasn’t been released either. President Bush is scheduled to deliver a speech next Friday in Reno to the White House Conference on North American Wildlife Policy at the Silver Legacy hotel-casino. Recent polls show Messrs. McCain and Obama in a statistical dead heat in Nevada.

PALIN: U.S. HAS WON ‘VICTORY’ IN IRAQ

Governor Palin, describing the need for more troops in Afghanistan, said America has achieved “victory” in Iraq. It was an apparent misstep in Ms. Palin’s third interview since agreeing to become Senator McCain’s running mate nearly one month ago. The Alaska governor told CBS’s Katie Couric that “a surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq,” adding that “we cannot afford to retreat, to withdraw in Iraq.” Pressed on why her state’s proximity to Russia enhanced her foreign policy experience, Ms. Palin said: “Well, it certainly does, because our, our next-door neighbors are foreign countries, there in the state that I am the executive of.” She added that when Prime Minister Putin “rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where do they go? It’s Alaska.”

AD WATCH: McCAIN SKIN CANCER AT ISSUE

Two liberal political action committees are making an issue of Senator McCain’s past bouts with skin cancer in a television commercial that features his facial scar and demands that the Republican presidential nominee release his medical records to the public. The 30-second ad, so far airing for $50,000 only on MSNBC, is paid for by Brave New PAC and Democracy for America, a political group headed by James Dean, brother of the chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Howard Dean. “John McCain is 72 years old and had cancer 4 times,” the ad’s text says over a black-and-white image of Mr. McCain with the left side of his face bandaged after surgery in 2000. “Why won’t McCain release his medical records?” The ad is the most public and unflinching effort to turn McCain’s health into a political issue. It is part of a broader effort by the two groups for Mr. McCain to make his health records public.

PALIN ACCEPTED $25K IN GIFTS

Governor Palin, who has made a crackdown on gift-giving to state officials a centerpiece of her ethics reform agenda, has accepted gifts valued at $25,367 from industry executives, municipalities, and a cultural center whose board includes officials from some of the largest mining interests in the state, a review of state records shows. The 41 gifts Ms. Palin accepted during her 20 months as Alaska governor include honorific tributes, expensive artwork, and free travel for a family member. They also include more than $2,500 in personal items from Calista, a large Alaska native corporation with a variety of pending state regulatory and budgetary issues, and a gold-nugget pin valued at $1,200 from the city of Nome, which lobbies on municipal, local, and capital budget matters, documents show.

DEMOCRATIC TICKET IN MICH. SUNDAY

Senator Obama, Senator Biden, and their spouses will hold a campaign rally Sunday afternoon in front of the Detroit Public Library. Messrs. Obama and Biden are expected to remind people about Michigan’s October 6 voter registration deadline. Michigan is one of the key battleground states in the presidential campaign.