Obama's speech in Cairo closely watch by Jerusalem

Barack Obama will address the Muslim world today in Egypt in his historical speech as usual for a historical President. Will he be able to make a significant progress is reaching the Muslim world? Well, we can say that. Only 28% of Americans believe he can do it as “Yes, We can” during his presidential campaign. The followers of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt have accused Hosni Mubarak for his dictatorship for 28 years for suppressing his opponents and ruling as an ally of USA. For them, this tantamount that Egypt is not a democratic place to address the Muslim world.

Israel will be listening carefully along with the rest of the world to Barack Obama's speech in Cairo, hoping his outreach to the Muslim world does not come at Israel's expense. It has been quoted by one senior official that like everyone else we will be following the speech very closely,” While officials in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's office did not see a draft of the speech, nor were they asked for their input, they were briefed on the overall content, the official said.

The Israeli-Arab conflict was expected to be touched upon during the address that will be delivered at Cairo University; it was not expected to be the focus. Rather, Obama will focus about America's relationship with the Muslim world. With the new administration's Middle East policy still being developed in Washington, however, Israeli officials said they would be listening carefully for clues as to where Obama was steering this policy.

Yesterday Obama was in Saudi Arabia where he said he was "seeking the counsel" of King Abdullah. "The United States and Saudi Arabia have a long history of friendship. We have a strategic relationship," Obama said as he visited the monarch's desert horse farm. One of the issues the two men were expected to address was gestures that the Arab world could make to Israel at the beginning of the diplomatic process to gain Israeli confidence.

Jerusalem, however, is very skeptical that the Saudi monarch would make any gesture at this time, and said that he probably was waiting for Israel to make the first move.
Obama, in an interview with The New York Times before leaving Washington, said that a key part of his message during the trip would be, "Stop saying one thing behind closed doors and saying something else publicly."

"There are a lot of Arab countries more concerned about Iran developing a nuclear weapon than the 'threat' from Israel, but won't admit it," he said. He also added that there were a lot of Israelis "who recognise that their current path is unsustainable, and they need to make some tough choices on settlements to achieve a two-state solution in their long-term interest - but not enough folks are willing to recognise that publicly."

Obama believes that lots of Palestinians who recognise that the constant incitement and negative rhetoric with respect to Israel has not gained them anything, and that they would have been better off "had they taken a more constructive approach and sought the moral high ground."
The pan-Arab Al-Jazeera Television broadcast a new audio tape from Osama bin Laden in which he threatened Americans and said Obama inflamed hatred toward the US by ordering Pakistan to crack down on Islamist gunmen in Swat Valley and to block Islamic law there.

Aides cautioned that Obama was not out to break new policy ground in his Cairo speech, which follows visits to Turkey and Iraq in April and a series of outreach efforts including a Persian New Year video and a student town hall in Istanbul. "We don't expect that everything will change after one speech," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.

In Riyadh, the president was talking to Abdullah about a host of thorny problems, from Arab-Israeli diplomatic efforts to Iran's nuclear programme. The Saudis have voiced growing concern in private that an Iranian bomb could unleash a nuclear arms race in the region.

Obama likely will be looking for help from Saudi Arabia on what to do with some 100 Yemeni detainees locked up in the Guantanamo Bay prison. Discussions over where to send the detainees have complicated Obama's plan to close the prison. The US has been hesitant to send them home because of Yemen's history of either releasing extremists or allowing them to escape from prison. Instead, the Obama administration has been negotiating with Saudi Arabia and Yemen for months to send them to Saudi terrorist rehabilitation centres. The congress has already rejected Obama’s demand for financing the closure of the jail as these prisoners cannot be released. Reports have confirmed that those who were arrested on the charge of terrorism and due to lack of evidence were released have rejoined terrorists linked activities.

Obama's meeting with the 84-year-old Abdullah was his second in three months. The two saw each other at the G-20 summit in London, a meeting both sides called friendly and productive. Perhaps a bit too friendly: Critics accused Obama of bowing to the Saudi monarch during a photo-op. The White House maintained he was merely bending to shake hands with a shorter man.

Just a few hours before he took off for the region, Obama met briefly in Washington with visiting Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak. Despite the current tension over the settlement construction issue, Barak said there was wide Israeli willingness to work together with the Americans. Barak, speaking to Israeli reporters Wednesday night in Washington, said he asked the White House to "water down its remarks, briefings and leaks, so that we can talk about fundamental issues."

The Americans, for their part, reportedly had a similar request: that Israeli official think twice before making pronouncements. In recent days Israeli officials have accused the US of abrogating oral agreements reached with Israel regarding the settlements, and going back on commitments given to Israel by George W. Bush.

While admitting that "there were differences of opinion between Israel and the US administration," Barak reiterated that Israel "welcomes Obama's initiative for regional peace."
"The US administration is looking for the correct way to garner Israeli support for revitalising the peace process," continued Barak, stressing that he was "more optimistic" following his talks on Tuesday with Obama than he was before the meetings, when he was reading what was reported in the newspapers and broadcast on the television news.