Tel Aviv - US President Barack Obama patted Israelis and
Palestinians on the back Thursday, but at the same time wagged a
finger in their face.
Making a landmark address in Cairo to the Muslim world, the
president was careful to stress the suffering and hopes of both sides
while at the same time reminding them of their obligations in order
for peace to be achieved.
The main focus of his comments on the Israeli-Palestinian
imbroglio - that Israel had to stop settlements, and Palestinians had
to combat militancy - was nothing the sides had not heard before.
But they had not heard it in such an anticipated speech, in which
a US president outlined his vision of relations with the Muslim
world.
The comments on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, therefore, were
important because of the timing and location of the speech, rather
than because of their content.
Predictably, reactions to the speech were mixed. In Israel,
Obama's remarks drew praise from the left and centre, and were
slammed by the right, and especially by settler leaders.
'Never has so much hoopla been made before, during and after a
speech which said nothing new,' said the Settlers' Council.
Official Israeli government waited three hours before putting out
a reaction, which stated that the Israeli government shared the
president's hope for a new era of reconciliation between the Arab and
Muslim world and Israel.
The laconic response did not address Obama's demand on a
settlement freeze. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it
clear that Israel has no intention of instituting a complete
settlement freeze.
The initial response from the Palestinian Authority also did
address the demands Obama made of it.
A spokesman for President Mahmoud Abbas said the speech was
'candid and clear' and 'a new American beginning.'
'Israel should take Obama's speech seriously,' Nabil Abu Rudeineh
said.
Militant Palestinian factions, whom the president called on to
renounce violence, were less impressed.
Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for the Islamic Hamas movement in the
Gaza Strip, said the speech was cosmetic only.
In a clear rejection of Obama's call for non-violence, Barhoum
slammed the president for not talking about 'the Palestinian peoples
right of resistance and their right of self-defense. '
The radical Islamic Jihad went further, denouncing the speech as
'imposing Israel on the Arabs and Moslems.'
Both movements, along with other militant groups, are crucial to
the peace process, since, as they proved in the past, they can derail
it, or even any possible further treaty, with violent attacks.
Their rejection of non-violence, and of Obama's vision for a new
start in America's relations with the Muslim world, as well as
Israel's previous rejection of calls for a settlement freeze,
indicates that the US president now finds himself in a corner.
By unequivocally and emphatically reminding Israelis and
Palestinians of their obligations, Obama has made it every clear what
the sides have to do.. What is less clear is what he will do if they
fail to meet his demands.
And it is equally unclear whether he will have the will, or the
political clout, to be able to do it.
USA
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