June 11, 2009 8:30 am
Mr. Obama came to Cairo with olive branch, taken, I presume, from the Great Seal of the United States, in patina of verses from the Koran. His message was to the man in the street rather than the leaders. Although it appeared that he asked for, but in fact, he demanded change. His style, rhetoric, charisma and approach were very different from and much more effective than that of George but Bush, he is a powerful defender of American interests no less than Bush was.
The speech certainly caused public stir in Iran. The decrease in oil revenues is another reason for the present turmoil there. The only issue on which the President was unmistakable was Shoah denial, as Michael Gerson wrote in Washington Post yesterday. A huge contrast to some of the President kibitzers in the press, who took rather nonchalant approach to the harsh and grating voices in Teheran. On this issue there was no "on one hand and the other hand." It appears that Obama believes that combating the deniers has not much to do with Israel even with the Jews but it is an aggressive defense of American values.
Contrary to expectations of Israel-bashers, Israel was not the only, even not the central subject of the speech. For them Middle East is not much fun anymore. The bloggers accused Thomas Friedman in the Times of making Iraq the central issue because he is a Jew. Unfortunately for them Mr. Obama is not. If there will be signs of change in the Arab world, most of the public in Israel will support Obama.
So far the President is successful. The "insult" felt in France and Germany because of the shortness of his visit is a good proof of that. Let us hope that he will indeed change the Muslim world.
— Aharon Meytahl, Vestal, New York
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