ARAB REACTION:ARABS AND Muslims welcomed US president Barack Obama's Cairo address but insisted that his words must be matched by firm actions to resolve the problems besetting the Arab region and Muslim world.
They greeted enthusiastically his call for mutual respect and tolerance, but are waiting to see how he will conduct policies based on these attitudes.
For most listeners, Mr Obama’s words on the core issue of Palestine were music to their ears.
Speaking on behalf of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, Nabil Abu Rudeina said: “His call for stopping [Israeli] settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of Palestinians . . . is a clear message to Israel that a just peace [will be] built on the foundation of a Palestinian state with [East] Jerusalem as its capital.”
Even Mr Abbas’s rival, Hamas, put a positive spin on the address. Ahmad Youssef, senior adviser to Gaza’s de facto premier Ismail Haniyeh, called the address “a great speech and a landmark” because Mr Obama rejected the contention that the Muslim world and the US were on a collision course.
Mr Youssef compared Mr Obama’s words to Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech.
Mr Youssef disagreed, however, with Mr Obama’s call for recognition of Israel’s legitimacy until its occupation of the Palestinians comes to an end and they have their own state.
Independent Palestinian legislator Mustafa Barghouti urged Mr Obama to avoid the “trap of creating a peace process without peace”.
Palestinians reject fruitless negotiations while Israelis continue to colonise the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Dr Barghouti spoke for Arabs and Muslims when he said the US must exert “immediate” pressure on Israel to accept the two-state solution and compel Israel to halt settlement activity.
Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh called the speech “historic” and said it “reflects a new direction for the new administration”. He praised Mr Obama’s determination to withdraw from Iraq by 2012 and his pledge not to establish military bases there.
Veteran Egyptian dissident Ayman Noor, who attended the event, said the speech was “better than expected” but “weak on democracy”, referring to the 28-year authoritarian rule of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak who has stifled all efforts to introduce political pluralism.
Sultan Badawi, a Sunni Muslim newsagent in Beirut, observed, “The way Obama analysed world problems convinced everybody that he is a fine man. He made it clear he is not against Islam and that he wants two states for two peoples” in Palestine-Israel.
Arab Christians also listened to the address with interest. Sophia Saadeh, a Lebanese academic and author, said: “It was a very good speech. He was honest in confronting the issues.” However, she doubts that he will be able to resolve the Palestinian problem.
Maurice Khoury, a Palestinian exiled from Nazareth when Israel was created, asserted: “It was a fantastic speech. He spelled out all the problems in a very clear way. We never heard anything that clear from a high American official – coming from the president it makes a big difference.”
Lebanon’s Shia Hizbullah movement and Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini adopted a contrary view.
Hizbullah said that Muslims did not need to hear sermons from the US while the ayatollah said Muslim nations shared a “deep hatred” of the US and warned that “change [toward Muslims] should be made in practice and not by making nice speeches”.
