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Last update - 03:16 05/06/2009
Obama's speech marks a strategic revolution for Israel
By Aluf Benn
Tags: Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama 

There have been American presidents who saw themselves as God's messengers on earth. There have been presidents who played the role of warrior on the battlefield of the superpowers. There have been presidents who rose through the political system and could pull the strings in Congress. Barack Obama is a rock star. He has total confidence in his powers of persuasion - if he can just have access to a platform, two teleprompters and airtime. Let him speak to the audience, any audience, and he'll sell them a new, friendly, considerate America. Obama's meteoric rise to the presidency and his massive popularity just go to show that his self-confidence is well founded.

Israel has had just one leader who rose to power and governed by virtue of his oratory, and that was Menachem Begin. But Obama is no Begin, who moved the masses with his fiery tone and impassioned rhetoric: The current American president wins his audience over with the inner calm that he projects, and with his ability to sound candid and spontaneous even when reading a speech that has undergone dozens of drafts, and in which every sentence has been carefully weighed - and then weighed again.

Yesterday, Obama took the stage at Cairo University to deliver his most important speech since taking office. After four and a half months in the White House, the signs of accelerated aging are already apparent: His hair is graying and the lines in his face have deepened. But the audience was going wild over him, interrupting him with applause and whistles. This is not the blank, sterile backdrop that accompanied his speech in Turkey a couple of months ago, a speech that stirred very little interest. This time, public opinion was primed ahead of time for a historic event, for a message that would fundamentally alter American-Muslim relations.
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Obama met the oratorical challenge he set for himself: He did not sound insincere or hypocritical when paying homage to Muslim culture and its achievements, nor did he sound apologetic or self-righteous when speaking about the disputes of the past and the need to turn over a new leaf. Obama ascribed the mistakes of his predecessor, George Bush, to the trauma of the September 11 attacks.

Osama bin Laden did not wait for Obama. Before the speech, he issued a taped message in which he accused the new president of "planting seeds of hatred and revenge," like his predecessor did. Obama responded with harsh words against Al-Qaida and its murderousness. But the truth is that Bin Laden won. He succeeded where diplomacy failed: The attacks on New York and Washington, and the wars that followed in Afghanistan and Iraq, compelled America to conduct serious soul-searching concerning its relations with Islam, and to try to comprehend the limits of its power.

Less than eight years after September 11, the Oval Office is now occupied by a president who was raised and schooled in a Muslim country, and who is trying to convince Muslims and Arabs that the United States is not the enemy, but rather a legitimate partner to their interests and aspirations. A president who came to Cairo to promise that from now on, America will treat Islam nicely, and that Bush's "crusade" - and attempt to dictate to the Arabs how to behave and how to govern - has come to an end.

For Israel, Obama's "Cairo speech" marks nothing less than a strategic revolution. During the Bush era, Israel was America's friendliest partner in the war on terror, and enjoyed military freedom of operation against the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Syria, for which it in return withdrew from the Gaza settlements. With Obama, Israel has to undergo a re-education, and will have to once again pass a test of its dedication to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Until yesterday, Obama discussed the Israeli-Arab conflict in terms of interests, and refrained from speaking about values and ethics. But in Cairo, he used the vocabulary and narrative of the American liberal left, whence he came. He spoke unwaveringly about "the occupation" and about the "Palestinians aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own," and promised that the United States would not turn its back on the Palestinians. He called on Hamas to show responsibility and to recognize Israel's right to exist; he did not call it a terror organization, but a movement that enjoys some popular support.

In addressing the Palestinians, Obama urged that they wage their war without violence, and he compared it to the struggle of black slaves in America to be freed from white domination, to the struggle of the blacks in South Africa, and to the struggles of other nations in South Asia and Eastern Europe. This is not an easy comparison for Israeli ears: In Obama's view, the Palestinians are waging a just struggle for national liberation, which reminds him of past efforts to break free of colonialism and Soviet tyranny. In the same breath, he called upon the Arab world to acknowledge the history of Jewish persecution and the Holocaust, and to understand that Arab anti-Semitism only exacerbates the Israelis' trauma, just as Israel's behavior exacerbates the Palestinian trauma of expulsion.

Obama knows what the solution is: the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He is not prepared to hear any other ideas. He demands that Israel stop expanding the settlements: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," he said, adding that this phenomenon violates previous agreements and undermines peace efforts.

Having proclaimed this loud and clear, there is no way that Obama can still agree to "natural growth" and other tricks designed to increase construction in the settlements. Now his credibility is on the line. It's his word against Israel's resolve to keep building. And this means that if Obama does exhibit the patience with which he promised to deal with the conflict, Israel will be facing a political crisis and a serious internal rift.

Benjamin Netanyahu is on the wrong side of Obama's speech, with his refusal to endorse a Palestinian state and his insistence on "natural growth" in the settlements. He might have been able to soften the blow a bit had he formed a coalition with Tzipi Livni on the basis of the two-state solution. Or if, during his White House visit, he had announced that he was embracing the road map. But that's of no importance now. Before long, Netanyahu will have to deliver a speech in response to Obama, and to declare a historic change in his ideology and policy. Until then, he'll go on hoping for a miracle that will wipe the "Cairo speech" off the agenda and make it disappear into the swirling sands of Middle East diplomacy.
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  1.   Yes, Kassam bases on the outskirts of Gush Dan, Please! 15:17  |  Avid Haaretz Reader 05/06/09
  2.   Aluf Ben`s column 15:18  |  Paul 05/06/09
  3.   Great assessment by Mr. Benn, bravo! Peace? YES WE CAN! 15:21  |  Ivar 05/06/09
  4.   A MIRACLE? 18:29  |  Ed 05/06/09
  5.   Hamas is supporting Bashir against the black slaves in darfur 18:30  |  Jeff 05/06/09
  6.   Middle East 18:46  |  Rea 05/06/09
  7.   Israel should be ready for compromise 19:06  |  Jack 05/06/09
  8.   Mr Obama, what kind of `Palestine` do you want? 19:27  |  Morris Valentine 05/06/09
  9.   President Obama`s Cairo Speech 20:15  |  Zamarah 05/06/09
  10.   Read between the lines 20:15  |  Michael n 05/06/09
  11.   answer this Mr. Obuma 20:26  |  dudu 05/06/09
  12.   Greater Israel 20:41  |  Student 05/06/09
  13.   Jack of London 21:34  |  call of the wild 05/06/09
  14.   "IF I ONLY HAD INCLUDED LIVNI..." 21:34  |  Fortuna Benmayor 05/06/09
  15.   Yes, Because Obama De-Legitimizes Israel 21:34  |  Meron 05/06/09
  16.   Settlements 21:35  |  Marc Muroff 05/06/09
  17.   #5, there are no slaves in Darfur! 21:40  |  fritz t. 05/06/09
  18.   New Deal 21:43  |  ruben siedner 05/06/09
  19.   Michael n, between the lines 21:45  |  Akiva P 05/06/09
  20.   dudu 21:49  |  Akiva P 05/06/09
  21.   Obama`s Speech 21:51  |  Ian Jaffe 05/06/09
  22.   Israel should awaken to the new world 22:01  |  mike 05/06/09
  23.   Aluf Benn 22:15  |  Renee Gold 05/06/09
  24.   Obama is wrong 22:35  |  Frank 05/06/09
  25.   student #12 22:35  |  Michael 05/06/09
  26.   Obama`s speech 22:40  |  zoot 05/06/09
  27.   Strategic shift for the U.S. 22:50  |  T. Traub 05/06/09
  28.   #8, Morris Valentine 23:11  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 05/06/09
  29.   Status 02:55  |  Iain 06/06/09
  30.   Paradym shift 03:33  |  Denise 06/06/09
  31.   Obama 03:49  |  Lynne 06/06/09
  32.   THANKS OBAMA 04:21  |  indrajaya 06/06/09
  33.   #17 fritz...even the UN doesn`t agree with that 04:55  |  Lynn 06/06/09
  34.   Ra. The future of ME is not in the hands of those who live there 09:29  |  vizier 06/06/09
  35.   Obama Says:Do As I Say,Not As I Do. 16:35  |  KATHY 06/06/09
  36.   For T. Traub..Strategic shift for the US? 16:43  |  Kathy 06/06/09
  37.   Isreal going to vanish as soon as 2 states exist 19:18  |  Yousef 06/06/09
  38.   Moroccan-based pirates attacked American shipping 19:29  |  PL 06/06/09
  39.   Paul in NY 22:47  |  David James Vickery 06/06/09
  40.   Israel did not quite have "freedom of military operation" 07:41  |  dave 07/06/09
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