Hopes High for Obama's Islam Speech
Tuesday 02 June 2009
by: Paul Reynolds | Visit article original @ BBC News
President Obama will give what could be one of the most important speeches of his presidency on Thursday when he addresses the relationship between the United States and Muslims.
In his speech, to the University of Cairo, he will hope to break with the hostility of recent years and set a new tone designed not only to isolate the extremists of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but to re-establish the understanding America gained on 9/11 and lost in Iraq.
And although he is not expected to go into detail about a new Israeli-Palestinian peace initiative, his words will be examined closely to see if they show signs of what many in the Muslim world hope will be a more even-handed approach than that shown by President George W Bush.
In advance of the speech, the president said in an interview with the BBC that he hoped to see progress by the end of the year, through "tough, direct diplomacy".
He has already provoked a row with the Israeli government over West Bank settlements, demanding that all activities cease. This includes what is called "natural growth", which is defined - at a minimum - as the building of more housing for the children of settlers.
This is not in fact a new demand. It was made, using the same phrase, in the 2003 roadmap for the Middle East, endorsed by the Quartet of the US, the UN, the EU and Russia.
Public Differences
The Israelis say that such growth will continue. One cabinet minister compared the restriction to the Egyptian pharaoh's demand that the first-born of the Children of Israel be "thrown into the Nile".
Lees verder: http://www.truthout.org/060209C
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