Israel PM calls for a demilitarized Palestine

This is supposed to pacify extremists and lead to peace HOW? . . .

CNN) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would agree to a peace agreement with Palestinians under which there would be a "demilitarized Palestinian state."


Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he would agree to peace with Palestinians.

The area under Palestinian control would have no army, would not control its airspace, and would not be allowed to bring in arms, Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu, who recently returned to the prime ministerial post he held 10 years ago, has previously not endorsed a two-state solution.

In his address, Netanyahu discussed the pain and loss through bloodshed on both sides of the conflict.

He said the root of the conflict lies in the refusal by the Palestinians to accept that the Jewish people have a homeland in Israel.

Netanyahu also called on Palestinian leaders to take immediate steps toward peace talks.

Youth in the Middle East

Hamas on Obama's Speech

He doesn't really indicate that the speech will affect Hamas' behavior at all...but he's in a tight spot. Gaza is in miserable condition, still in ruins from the war earlier this year, and the sanctions he's referring to are keeping relief from getting into the refugee camps. It's a very real grievance, and I can't blame him for being unwilling to dismiss it. . .Of course I don't condone violence, but this is a real "chicken-or-the-egg" situation...Where will the peace process begin? Who will be willing to make the first compromise?

Queen Noor on Obama's Speech

Okay, so she doesn't say much substantively, but. . .

Reactions to Obama's Speech, Collected by AP

By The Associated Press – 48 mins ago
Notable reaction to President Barack Obama's speech Thursday to the Muslim world:
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"President Obama is a brave president. ... We hope he will open a new chapter with the Islamic world and Arab nations in particular." — Mithwan Hussein, a Baghdad resident.
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"Bush and Clinton said the same about a Palestinian state, but they've done nothing, so why should we believe this guy?" — Ali Tottah, 82, who is originally from the West Bank town of Nablus, speaking at the Baqaa refugee camp in Jordan.
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"There is a change between the speech of President Obama and previous speeches made by George Bush. But today's remarks at Cairo University were based on soft diplomacy to brighten the image of the United States." — Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza.
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"The Obama administration is focused on whether to strike Iran or not, as if the core problem in the region is Iran. But it totally forgot the Palestinian issue. Let Obama solve the Palestinian problem first, then he can strike whoever he wants." — Ibrahim Hreish, a jeweler in Amman, Jordan.
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"Why did he not come here to Gaza, instead of going to Egypt? He is welcome to come and see, to inspect with his own eyes, to see the war crimes and the new Holocaust." — Mohammed Khader, 47, whose house in Gaza was leveled by Israeli troops during the recent three-week offensive against Hamas.
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"It was actually better than we expected, but not as good as we hoped. ... His stance on democracy was very general, a bit weak, we hoped for more detail." — Ayman Nour, an Egyptian dissident recently released from prison.
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"Obama is clearly admitting that Bush's military offensive in Iraq was a mistake." — Said Lacet, 56, a civil servant in Algeria.
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"It still was a speech about what America wants. Maybe that's only natural, because he wants to protect American interests in the region. ... But I really do believe he envisions a world that is pluralistic, where different religions can live peacefully together, with respect, as he himself experienced in Indonesia." — Edi Kusyanto, a teacher at the school in Indonesia where Obama went as a child.
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"The part of Obama's speech regarding the Palestinian issue is an important step under new beginnings. ... This is the beginning of a new American policy and this policy is creating a new atmosphere to build the Palestinian state." — Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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"He was very generous in his comments about Islam's contributions to civilization. ... There also hasn't really been any other Western leader who has expressed such commitment to fighting negative stereotypes regarding Muslims." — Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a Just World think-tank in Malaysia.
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"This vision is so out of touch with reality. ... You can have your speechwriters find every good thing a Muslim has every done. But more modern history is that the Muslim world is at war with the Western world." — Aliza Herbst, 56, a spokeswoman for Yesha, the West Bank settlers' council.
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"It was very positive. A president with the middle name of Hussein being in Cairo talking about collaboration means a lot for Muslims. It will influence people." — Malek Sitez, an international law expert in Kabul, Afghanistan.
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"It's one of the most important speeches ever delivered, a key speech for changing the climate in the Middle East. Israel will make a big mistake if it ignores it and doesn't use it to generate a new dialogue with the Muslim world." — Yuli Tamir, a dovish Israeli lawmaker from the centrist Labor Party.
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"I don't trust him. He's just trying to apologize to Muslims because of what America — or really Bush — has done in the past. He's promising to be different. But that's all it is, a promise. We want action." — Wahyudin, the director of a hard-line Islamic boarding school in Jakarta, who goes by one name.

Obama Arrives in Saudi Arabia

This video made me laugh out loud...diplomacy is so AWKWARD sometimes! Haha....

Osama on Obama

An eerie censorship trend in China

Excellent Article from Steven Hurst, AP: Obama Gets Tough on Israel, Scores Points with Arab World

I found myself nodding along as I read this article--so many excellent points that many Americans have missed in the past, regarding Mideast-US relations. I.e., Bush's abrasive campaign for Middle Eastern countries to become LIKE America in order to partner WITH America. Categorically imposing our 'ideals' on other nations with a 'one-size-fits-all' attitude, as well as what appeared to be blind faith in the state of Israel, was a nasty combination in former American policy. I hope Obama continues to progress AWAY from these trends. . .

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WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama has gotten tough with Israel and chosen Cairo — where President Hosni Mubarak rules with a firm hand — for his much-awaited overture to the Islamic world in what appears to be a clear break from decades of U.S. policy.

Many issues cloud American relations with the Muslim world, but none rankles like U.S. ties to Israel and massive support for the Jewish state in the heart of the Arab Middle East.

While the majority of the world's 1.5 billion Muslims live in Asia, the growing militancy among the followers of the Prophet Muhammad took root largely in the Middle East. The dramatic strike against the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, was the work of Arabs under the direction of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, who was born in Saudi Arabia.

Bin Laden cited anger at U.S. support for Israel as the guiding philosophy of the terrorist organization that drew American forces into wars in Afghanistan, where he was believed to be hiding, and Iraq, which was flooded by al-Qaida fighters after the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Those wars and U.S. policy toward Israel have produced a growing belief in the Muslim world that the United States is at war with Islam.

Given those realities, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs played down expectations of a quick turnaround in U.S.-Muslim relations after Obama's Thursday speech.
"This is about resetting our relationship with the Muslim world. ... We don't expect everything to change after one speech," he said.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday on French television, Obama warned against heightened expectations.
"I think it is very important to understand that one speech is not going to solve all the problems in the Middle East," Obama said. "And so expectations need to be somehow modest."

But Obama's very public demand last month that Israel stop settlement activity on land the Palestinians want for a state was a clear prelude to the Cairo speech and a sign that he's serious about regaining the United States' role as an honest broker in that region, a policy switch that is bound to pay dividends across the Muslim world.

"There is no question that this is a break from the past," said Aaron David Miller of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

Miller, who was deeply involved in the U.S. peacemaking-efforts during the Clinton administration, said it is clear Obama will not be "coddling the Israelis." At the same time, he said, the president does not appear to have developed his policy on Israel beyond demanding it stop building settlements.

"I don't see that he has an 'or else' he is ready to use" against recalcitrant Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has flatly rejected the president's demand on settlements.

In a pre-trip interview with National Public Radio, Obama was diplomatically blunt.
"Part of being a good friend is being honest. And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory in the region, is profoundly negative not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests. And that's part of a new dialogue that I'd like to see encouraged in the region," Obama said.

By linking Israeli settlement activity to "U.S. interests," Obama may well have been laying out part of his planned speech to the Muslim world.

"I bet the speech will largely be about the Arab-Israeli stalemate," said Miller, adding that Obama also "will have to address Arab authoritarianism."

By choosing to speak in Cairo, Obama opened himself to criticism that grows out of Mubarak's long and authoritarian rule in Egypt, a leading Arab country.

Mubarak's predecessor, Anwar Sadat, was the first of only two Arab leaders to sign a peace treaty with Israel. He was assassinated by Muslim radicals three years later in 1981. Jordan's deceased King Hussein signed a peace accord in 1994.

Seeking to head off criticism of having selected Cairo for the much-awaited speech, Obama told NPR:

"I think it's a mistake for us to somehow suggest that we're not going to deal with countries around the world in the absence of their meeting all our criteria for democracy."

U.S.-Egyptian relations were severely strained under former President George W. Bush as he pushed for democratization throughout the Arab world in conjunction with the Iraq war.

The State Department announced on Tuesday that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton would travel to Egypt for Obama's speech and meetings with Mubarak, a sign that the administration is counting on Egypt to play a moderating role and to serve as a mediator in any larger peace initiatives in the Middle East.

By changing focus toward the Arabs and showing a willingness to open a public rift with the hard-line Netanyahu, Obama may score points on style with his Islamic audience. But the game won't be won until he manages to negotiate a larger peace among the Arabs and Israel.

"It's a good thing he's patient," Miller said. "In the Middle East, there is only long and longer."

"Netanyahu rejects US calls for settlement freeze" (click for AP story)

HAVAT GILAD, West Bank –

Israel's prime minister on Monday dismissed the U.S. demand for a settlement freeze as unreasonable, moving closer to a collision with the Obama administration, while mobs of Jewish settlers attacked Palestinian laborers and burned West Bank fields.

....Monday's events highlighted Netanyahu's increasingly difficult balancing act. The hard-line leader is trying to keep his pro-settler ruling coalition together by rejecting President Barack Obama's call for a halt to all settlement activity, at the risk of hurting Israel's all-important relationship with the U.S.

In an apparent gesture to Obama, Netanyahu has begun dismantling small settler outposts built without formal government authorization. But even that limited step risks triggering settler violence against Palestinians and further international criticism of Israel.

Settlers have vowed to respond with attacks on Palestinians and their property to any attempt to remove even the tiniest enclave — a tactic known as "price tag."

"We will do everything we can to oppose this," said Yehuda Shimon, a resident of the Havat Gilad outpost in the northern West Bank.

In Jerusalem, Netanyahu briefed the Israeli parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee about his recent meeting with Obama at the White House. The American president and his secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, have demanded that Israel halt all settlement construction, including expansion to accommodate what Israel calls "natural growth" of settler communities.

Netanyahu said Israel cannot "freeze life" in settlements, according to a participant who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed. Netanyahu was quoted as saying that "there are reasonable requests and unreasonable requests."

....Before dawn, near the Kedumim settlement, stone-throwing settlers ambushed a minivan carrying Palestinian laborers to Israel, the workers said. Six of the 15 Palestinians on board were hurt, including Yahye Sadah, 44, who was hit in the head and said he got six stitches.

Police said settlers threw rocks and burned tires in the area. The attackers fled and no arrests were made, they said.

Nearly 300,000 Israelis live in the settlements among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank. Another 180,000 live in Jewish neighborhoods of east Jerusalem. The Palestinians claim both areas — captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war — as parts of a future independent state.

In recent years, settlers have set up dozens of squatter camps, or so-called outposts, that lack formal government approval, but often received funding and support from government agencies. Israel has failed to keep a promise to the U.S., first made in 2003, to dismantle about two dozen outposts.

The U.S. considers the settlements an obstacle to peace, but traditionally has done little on the issue, a policy that appears to be changing under Obama.

Netanyahu has dispatched his defense minister, Ehud Barak, to Washington this week in hopes of winning approval to allow at least limited construction to continue in the settlements, apparently in exchange for removing outposts. But the Obama administration has so far signaled it is not willing to budge.

In another possible diplomatic entanglement, U.N. investigators on Monday began looking into possible war crimes during Israel's three-week offensive against Gaza's Hamas rulers, even though they failed to secure a promise of cooperation from Israel.

Israeli officials have insisted the investigation, led by veteran war crimes prosecutor Richard Goldstone, would not be objective, citing alleged anti-Israel bias by the U.N. agency sponsoring the probe.

Goldstone, who is Jewish and has close ties to Israel, has said he wants to investigate both Israel and Hamas. He said Monday, after arriving in Gaza City with a 15-member team, he would deliver his report by August.