Obama’s Speech: Going Back To Pre-1967 Borders Unrealistic, Says Israel

[TGD]

Mixed reactions have continued to trail United States' (U.S.) President Barack Obama's new policy outlines for the Middle East and North Africa in the wake of revolts and elusive peace in the two regions.

From the affected two regions, West Africa and America, it was a diversity of commendations and attacks for the Obama address with Israel releasing the first salvo.

While rejecting the U.S. policy, the Jewish State asserted that the U.S. "does not understand reality" as its leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in Washington yesterday on an official visit after Obama endorsed a longstanding Palestinian demand on borders of a future state.

Obama had on Thursday saluted the courage of Arab citizens for the revolt in countries across the Middle East and North Africa, arguing that the uprisings have shown that a policy of repression would no longer work as people seek to win their freedom and human rights.

In what was termed as a major speech laying out U.S. policy for the region, Obama, who spoke at the State Department in his first comprehensive remarks on the Middle East, said the U.S. would support efforts for reform across the two regions, including "transitions toward democracy."

In the "new chapter in American diplomacy," Obama pointed to recent popular uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, and elsewhere and said: "The events of the past six months show us that strategies of oppression and strategies of diversion will not work anymore," he said.

He said people in parts of the region "have seized control of their own destiny" to fight for popular democracy and self-determination.

He, however, urged the World Bank and other countries to come up with development plan for Egypt and Tunisa, apart from billions of dollars being envisaged by Washington as grants.

Obama embraced the Palestinian view that the state they seek in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip should largely be drawn along lines that existed before the 1967 war in which Israel captured those territories and East Jerusalem.

But the president emphasized that the changes under way will take time. "It will be years before this story reaches its end," he said.

However, Netanyahu, who has had strained relationship with Obama in the past, began an official visit to U.S. yesterday with an argument that the pre-1967 borders as demanded by Obama would leave Israel with borders that were "indefensible."

Also, a Libyan government official claimed that Obama's tirades against its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, were the usual American propaganda. The official said Obama was known for spreading lies.

However, Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade has recognised Libya's Benghazi-based rebels as the legitimate opposition and said they should be given international support to lead the country's transition to democratic elections.

Senegal's position, made known after a visit by officials of the rebel delegation National Transitional Council, appears to go further than that of the African Union (AU), which has urged a ceasefire but not gone as far as recognising the rebels.

"President Wade declared that he recognised ... Mustafa Abdel Jalil and the political forces he represents as the established and legitimate opposition, whose natural role –with African and international support – is to prepare republican institutions in Libya via democratic, free and transparent elections," a presidency statement late on Thursday said.

But to Nabil Shaath, a senior adviser to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the Obama speech was a "half-full glass." He told Cable News Network (CNN) that Abbas would review the speech with all Palestinian factions and present Obama with some "specific requirements" for translating his rhetoric into "a real peace process."

In Benghazi, the heart of the Libyan revolt against longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi, a rebel leader pronounced Obama's speech in support of democratic movements across the region "good enough."

"Overall, the speech was positive for Libya," said Jalal el-Gallal, a spokesman for the National Transitional Council. Rebel leaders were pleased to hear Obama call their provisional government "legitimate and credible," remarks that raised hopes of eventual U.S. recognition as the country's rightful government — and accompanying aid.

"Hopefully, they will recognise our aspirations," el-Gallal said. "They will recognize us fully, and we can bring this chapter to an end."

And to Michele Dunne, a former White House and State Department expert on the Middle East, Obama's address was "a lot more timid than it needed to be."

"He spoke a lot more about self-determination and reform than he did about broader concepts like democracy and freedom," Dunne told CNN.

"He has been pretty cautious about approaching these changes in the Middle East," added Dunne, now an analyst at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"At least now he has said openly ... that the United States will stand up for its principles in its actions toward the Middle East."

Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman, weighing a run for the Republican presidential nomination, said U.S. military forces are spread too thin around the world and he thinks President Barack Obama erred in intervening in Libya.

Traveling in New Hampshire, Huntsman told ABC News that Libya "is not core to our national security interest."

The embattled Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh told thousands of supporters yesterday that he wants an early presidential election to end a political crisis after months of deadly anti-regime protests.

"We wanted Obama to directly call Saleh to leave office the same way he did with Mubarak," said Saleh Kayyat, a youth leader in the capital Sanaa.

"He did not do that. This is wrong, and he is not being honest with the wave of change in the Middle East."

Another protester, Ala'a Jarban, told CNN, "We had hoped to hear more."

Meanwhile, the Taliban has also claimed responsibility for an attack yesterday on a convoy of U.S. Consulate vehicles in northwest Pakistan, saying it was in retaliation for the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Obama said there is a "deepening spiral of division between the United States and the Arab world" that needs to be reversed.

He called on Syrian President Bashar Assad to lead his country to democracy or "get out of the way," his most direct warning to the leader of a nation embroiled in violence.

Source: Guardian Nigeria.