In what has been called either a historic speech or a first step, depending on who’s talking, U.S. President Barack Obama spoke Thursday in Cairo, Egypt in an attempt to reach out to Arab nations and citizens.
Hello, I’m Erica Nochlin, and you’re watching Newsy.com.
Response to the President’s speech has been positive in Europe- England’s The Economist and Germany’s Spiegel Online both heaped praise on the President- but say that the real test will be in the follow-through.
“The difficulty now lies in translating the new goodwill into action, not just by America, but by its Arab and Muslim allies.”
“With his address, US President Barack Obama offered an olive branch to the Islamic world. Whether his speech will go down in history will be determined by the mullahs in Tehran and the hardliners in Israel.”
Most criticism of the speech has echoed a common knock on Obama: words without a concrete plan.
Israel National News and Russia Today looked specifically at the president’s efforts to bridge Israeli-Palestinian relations.
Obama said, "Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, and recognize Israel's right to exist...“
Israel National News responds to that quote from the President saying, "Obama did not explain in his Cairo speech heard around the world how he plans to get the two groups to unite...”
Russia Today discussed the issue.
“But he has a very difficult balancing act doesn’t he? The issues the president addressed in today’s speech is very sensitive to both the Arabic countries and the Israeli side. Do you think the current administration will be able to keep both on track and both on side?
Well, exactly this is a major problem because it’s very difficult to sit on two chairs.”
The Jerusalem Post follows that up, saying that Obama needs to remember who he is talking to.
“Netanyahu loses sleep not because he wants to incinerate millions of innocent Iranians but because of the all-too-real-threats from the Teheran regime, armed with nuclear-tipped ambitions committed to finishing Hitler's work.”
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