US president and Middle East peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jordan Times
by Ahmad Majdoubeh - (Opinion) June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

By appointing an envoy to push for Middle East peace, by recognising the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli problem, by receiving Arab and Israeli leaders at the White House and by coming to the region to meet with more Arab leaders, US President Barack Obama is already taking significant steps to activate peace efforts. Some analysts have argued that Obama will give his utmost attention to the current economic crisis and that Middle East peace will occupy a back seat. Obama is proving these analysts wrong.

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Muslims in U.S.: Speech hit 'right notes'
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from USA Today
by Marisol Bello - June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama's call for Arabs, Israelis and Americans to abandon their suspicions and work together for a more secure future was welcomed more enthusiastically by Muslims on this side of the world than by Jews who expressed concerns about his support for the Palestinian cause. "He hit the right notes with the right tone," said Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine. "He gave the big picture in a speech that takes the high moral ground. It takes courage to say the things that are not exactly what your audience wants to hear."

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Using New Language, President Shows Understanding for Both Sides in Middle East
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Washington Post
by Jacqueline Salmon - June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

There was no mention of "terrorists" or "terrorism," just "violent extremists." There was the suggestion that Israeli settlements are illegitimate and the assertion that the Palestinians "have suffered in pursuit of a homeland." There were frequent references to the "Holy Koran" and echoes of Muslim phrases.

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Muslims in U.S.: Speech hit 'right notes'
Media Mention of Ziad Asali In USA Today - June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama's call for Arabs, Israelis and Americans to abandon their suspicions and work together for a more secure future was welcomed more enthusiastically by Muslims on this side of the world than by Jews who expressed concerns about his support for the Palestinian cause. "He hit the right notes with the right tone," said Ziad Asali, president of the American Task Force on Palestine. "He gave the big picture in a speech that takes the high moral ground. It takes courage to say the things that are not exactly what your audience wants to hear."

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Obama tells Israel to halt expansion
Media Mention of Ghaith al-Omari In The Boston Globe - June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

President Obama received Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House yesterday with an invaluable welcoming gift: a toughly worded, categorical US demand for Israel to stop expanding settlements in the West Bank. But hours before the two men met, the Israeli government flatly rejected the demand. Spokesman Mark Regev said that "normal life in those communities must be allowed to continue," including some construction.

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It is in the Interest of Arabs and Muslims to Forge a Partnership with the United States and Obama
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Dar Al-Hayat
by Raghida Dergham - June 5, 2009 - 12:00am

In order for Arab and Muslim leaderships and populations to benefit from the momentum of the new tone in US-Israeli relations, the depth and the meaning of the distance crossed by President Barack Obama, in defining a new framework for this relationship and in promoting this framework before US public opinion, must be carefully examined.

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Obama's Cairo speech rabbis
Media Mention of ATFP In Foreign Policy - June 4, 2009 - 12:00am

Who advised President Barack Obama on the big speech? "Over the weekend, White House officials hosted a group of Muslim and other foreign policy scholars to discuss what points Mr. Obama should touch on," Politico's Mike Allen reports in Playbook. The New York Times details: Ghaith Al-Omari from the American Task Force on Palestine, Carnegie Endowment's Karim Sadjadpour, Iran expert Vali Nasr, who's been working for Holbrooke, and Brookings' Shibley Telhami, who's been all over the airwaves incidentally commenting on the speech:

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Obama must match his words with actions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Gulf News
(Editorial) June 4, 2009 - 12:00am

The United States is aiming to take a "new way forward" in its relationship with the Muslim world. Of this there is no question. Its President Barack Obama succeeded in delivering a message of respect to Muslims across the world through his historic speech in Cairo yesterday. His familiarity with Islam and his ability to quote comfortably from the Quran (he did it four times) is bound to resonate in this part of the world.

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Addressing Muslims, Obama Pushes Mideast Peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Alan Cowell, Jeff Zeleny - June 4, 2009 - 12:00am

In opening a bold overture to the Islamic world on Thursday, President Obama confronted frictions between Muslims and the West, but he reserved some of his bluntest words for Israel, as he expressed sympathy for the Palestinians and what he called the “daily humiliations, large and small, that come with occupation.”

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Varying Responses to Speech in Mideast Highlight Divisions
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The New York Times
by Michael Slackman - June 4, 2009 - 12:00am

On one level, President Obama’s speech succeeded in reaching out to Muslims across the Middle East, winning widespread praise for his respectful approach, his quotations from the Koran and his forthright references to highly fraught political conflicts.

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