Staff Writer

It was a contest over cookies and coffee Monday night as Sens. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) made the American Israel Public Affairs Committee policy conference the latest battleground in the Democratic presidential campaign.

The two leading contenders for the nomination ‹ as well as underdog Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) ‹ staged dueling dessert receptions for delegates after the AIPAC banquet.

Obama seemed in somewhat of a hurry, starting and wrapping up his remarks in a room in the Washington Convention Center while a good chunk of the massive crowd was still filing out of the banquet hall after listening to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

One observer of Obama's speech was disappointed by his use of the words "cycle of violence" ‹ a phrase disliked by many pro-Israel activists for its intimations of moral equality between the two sides ‹ and that he talked more about the danger of "cynicism" than of terrorism.

On Sunday, according to the Des Moines Register, Obama told a small group of Democrats in Muscatine, Iowa, that "nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He also endorsed relaxing restrictions on aid to the Palestinians if the Hamas-controlled government renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel.

"If we could get some movement among Palestinian leadership, what I'd like to see is a loosening up of some of the restrictions on providing aid directly to the Palestinian people," he said in response to a question, according to the paper.

Clinton, whose podium at the AIPAC gathering sported a sticker with her name written in Hebrew, waited a little longer and told a packed house of hundreds that "Israel's freedom and democracy must be protected," and that she would like to see even tougher economic sanctions on Iran than are being considered.

Biden drew a considerably smaller crowd than his rivals, but made up for it by sticking around much longer. At 11:30 p.m., when Clinton and Obama were long gone, the senator from Delaware was still shaking hands and chatting with delegates.

Earlier in the evening, Biden stood on a chair ‹ instead of using a podium like Clinton and Obama ‹ and ripped those who have questioned the close ties between the United States and the Jewish state.

"The next time somebody makes a [negative] comment about the relationship between the United States and Israel, remind them that if there were no Israel, for U.S. security's sake, we'd have to invent one," he said. "It's not a one-way relationship ‹ we need Israel as much as Israel needs us."

The only GOP presidential contender to host a similar reception was Sen. Sam Brownback (R-Kan.). While Brownback chatted with delegates for more than an hour, there was one indicator that his reception had not been as popular as those held by his Democratic counterparts ‹ his room was the only place where cookies remained as the clock crept toward 11 p.m.