What do you expect after Obama's speech ?

After a speech by the U.S. President Barack Obama to the Muslim world from Cairo yesterday. Is it a new beginning for relations between the West and the Islamic world after the tension that has occurred in the era of former President Bush. Or that the current circumstances and the consequences of the war on terrorism and the fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Middle East problem in the forefront of the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the arrival of the far right to power in Israel would keep the controversial issues without a solution?

I expect good things. It is about time the United States government stops lumping all people of Islamic descent and Muslim beliefs into this category of either terrorists or people we shouldn't trust. It is despicable. Yet now I've read people who think Obama is The Beast because he fits their reasoning apparently (fluent speaker, worldly powerful, extremely popular, trying to unite the Arab world...)

Oh I'm sure there will be many difficulties on both sides, but it can work. There is no reason to fear everyone of Arabic descent.

You're right. There are many difficulties take a long time to finish. Doubt must be removed between the Muslims and Arabs and the Western world, as well as the definition of the other side (I mean the Muslim world) that western thought does not antagonize Islam. I, personally, made the acquaintance of many Muslims, Arabs,Turks, and Africans, as well as Jews from Israel, Europe and America, of course, Everyone has expressed the hope to live together. True that there are doubts among all parties, but all emphasized that dialogue and mutual understanding is the most appropriate

Yeah,I think so .
I hope the Western and the Arabic will be better .

I am a huge support of President Obama and this speech only makes me more of one. Excellent speech. I like how he came right out and said what the problems are in the middle east and the steps that should be taken to solve them. I know it's fleeting, but I hope for peace.



I have also seen people like this and I can assure you that they are all idiots.

Maybe he'll stop the war,or the world will declare war again .

Okay, not to be breaking up the serious discussion here, but did hell just freeze over?

No kidding. I mean come on, every modern president in last few decades has been marked as The Beast: Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr.

You think they'd eventually give up.

I expect nothing to change at all. Speeches are held for cameras. It's a neat media stunt, and that's it.

Both sides profit too greatly of their respective, carefully built bogeyman - both sides can use each other as a splendid scapegoat to distract from domestic issues. The west is all too glad to pounce on the threat of islamic terrorism (one of the "four horsemen of the information apocalypse", © Schneier) to force through the domestic obliteration of civil liberties. The Arab world, in turn, is very fond of those spectres of "western aggression" and "Zionism", because they distract splendidly from their own, utterly miserable situation (totalitarian regimes, rampant corruption, poverty, living standards, domestic strife, tribalism, unemployment, I could go on for hours). And it's not like just "those above" are fond of these stereotypes - Chet Chuck the peanut farmer loves them just as much as Ali ibn-Abu the orange planter does.
No, Sir, I don't believe that will change within the next decades. Not before the oil fields in the Arab world are depleted and the region sinks back into insignificance.

And as for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? The conflict in the middle east will not be solved until at least one side is completely dead. The events of August 2005 have made that painfully clear to me.

I thought people hated Obama because of shit like ACORN, the fact that he's driving us into socialism, and appointing people like Alito and others with hella bad records into office.

And cause his great ability to speak is only attributed to him when he has a teleprompter... unlike here:



Anyway, back on topic. I really don't know what to say about this. There is good and bad to this. The good is obvious, seeing the high tension between the middle-eastern world and ours. It would be good to tie these loose ends. But what about our long standing ally Israel? It seemed like a slap in the face for them when Obama said they couldn't settle in the West Bank. But like gibbous said, it's just a speech...

But I guess we won't know what'll happen until later since this speech might help our standings in the Muslim world (or vice-versa?).

Israel is literally building settlements into the West Bank, which is not part of their country. It would be like the United States building cities in Canada and saying they are now part of the United States. Israels actions are wrong.

Not exactly. The Israelis took the West Bank during the 6 day war. Even before that, the Israelis had an agreement with Emir Faisal a recognized Arabian leader who signed an agreement with Chaim Weizmann who was the leader of Zionist movement in 1919 which includes the borders in today's dispute.

Link: Faisal-Weizmann Agreement

Hahah! Oh man, you got my sense of humor. +Rep for that one asap.



Evidently, from an idealistic point of view, you're completely right. International law is fairly clear on this (as far as the 40% of cisjordania that are intended to be palestinian territory are concerned)
However, from a practical, pragmatic (Kissinger called it "realpolitik") perspective, things look a bit differently:
There is no "good" and no "evil" side in this conflict. The Palestinian (and generally Arab leaders) clique delights in rhetorics along the lines of "the jews must be driven into the sea", and denying Israel the right to exist. Israel encroaches on foreign territory. Whenever Israel takes steps towards peace (such as the eviction of illegal settlements in 2005), the Palestinian side interprets it as weakness and reacts with more violence. Israel in turn launches air strikes at will. And so on.
Since there is no "good" and no "evil", I think it wiser to choose whom to support according to different criteria: Which is the most democratic nation in the area? (Israel) Which is the nation with the least violent infighting? (Israel) Which is the most stable nation with effective governance? (Israel) And so forth.
The final issue is that realistically speaking, a few illegal settlements are really the Palestinians' smallest problem.

Yes it's smartest for us to support Israel, which is why we do it. That does not mean we should support the things that they do which violate human rights and are illegal. This is why I find it significant that Obama has the balls to call them out on the things they do wrong rather than just blindly support Israel for political gain.

A lot of time that comes down to your religious convictions. Personally I refuse to support Israel in their actions. They are just as wrong, and arrogant in their decisions as everyone who stands to threaten them, but because it is the Holy Land all is forgiven, but I will not accept that. Israel has made their bed, now they have to lie in it.

We want to believe as a religious nation that this is a battle between good versus evil, but isn't. Israel is no more right in their convictions that Palestine. They have to work the issues out for themselves, it is a waste of U.S. resources to help out Israel only under the pretences of religious and moral convictions. Call me cold-hearted, but that is just how I feel.

Yeah,but it doesn't mean both sides are innocent .
Both Israel and the UAE got mistakes .
A member of Arabic league,Palestine,took a part of Israel city .
And then,Israel got mad and invaded them .
How could they end the war?
And,the American should make a diplomatic way to take care,not to help Israel.
I hope Obama could take care of this after his speech .
:/

This is true, but Jacob's argument is that Israel should stop because even if it's justified they are violating human rights.

Another reason why Israelis invaded Palastine (which many people seem to forget) is because Hamas firing missles on Israel injuring and killing innocent civilians. I'm not saying this justifies their claim to hurt innocent civilians in turn, but you got to look at it from their perspective as well and stop making Israel look like jackasses. It pisses me off when people think Israelis are in the wrong but not the Palestinians who originally started this.

EDIT: I also noticed after I made the argument that Israeli had the right to settle in the West Bank we went on to a different topic. >_>

Bush alienated the whole Muslim race, and acting like Gorbachev afterwards didn't help much either.

With this speech, Obama's again making progress to repair what huge damage Bush has done. We certainly will not expect him to do it with a single overseas trip, unlike most Americans and Muslims shown in NBC's report that immediately bashed Obama like ignorant pups. It's very hard to convince the Muslim world nowadays given that they still feature Americans almost looking like Bush as their bad guys in their soap operas.

Hopefully this speech can help Muslims see that there's a new guy on the House who's more than willing to keep extending his hand to them for a handshake and a warm smile, patiently waiting for them to return it someday. Bush usually hid behind Rice and Cheney when it comes to speaking to Muslims (last time he finally mustered enough courage to speak in a room full of Muslims, he was given the shoe treatment) but Obama's in Cairo in person. Actions speak louder than words, and despite what critics may say, Obama's personal approach in regaining the trust of the Islam world is a speech in itself.

"A pessimist is what an optimist calls a realist."

I'd like to think, and I actually do think, that something good will come of it, but no wide scale change is going to occur for decades, maybe even longer.

It is too soon for everyone to hope that Obama can create a worldwide dialect, or even attempt to unite the Arab world in the same common goals as our own. One step a time, but we have to exercise caution, and I'm afraid too many people in the current young generation are going to fail to remember that.

Anyway on a tangent, it does seem like quite a few people are very pro-Israeli on this debate. I mean I would expect that out of religious people, but to me it seems like even more than that.