Obama On Mideast: "Moment Is Now" To Act

Following Speech To Muslim World, President Keeps Pressure On Israel, Palestinians; Sending Envoy Back Next Week

(CBS/AP)  President Obama called Friday for a redoubling of efforts toward separate Israeli and Palestinian states, saying "the moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth."

After meeting with Chancellor Angela Merkel, the U.S. president said: "the United States can't force peace upon the parties. But what we've tried to do is clear away some of the misunderstandings."

At a joint news conference with his German counterpart, Mr. Obama said: "The United States can't force peace upon the parties." But he said America has "at least created the space, the atmosphere, in which talks can restart." (Read the full transcript of their remarks.)

Mr. Obama announced that he was sending special envoy George J. Mitchell back to the region next week to follow up on his own speech in Cairo a day earlier, in which he sought to begin mending the United State's deeply flawed image in the Muslim world.

He called in his speech for both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to give ground in the longtime standoff toward the elusive goal of peace in the Middle East.

The president said while the entire international community is going to have to help Israelis and Palestinians achieve peace, "ultimately the parties involved have to make the decision that the prosperity and security of their people are best served" by an accord. He stressed that the effort would take time, but added: "I'm confident that if we stick with it, having started early this year, we are going to make some progress on it."

Merkel, for her part, promised to cooperate in her own right on this long-sought goal.

After urging Israel and the Palestinians to find a way to compromise, the president made a point Friday to highlight the example of post-war Europe, reported CBS News correspondent Richard Roth.

"You now have a unified Europe and a Germany that is a very close ally of Israel," Mr. Obama said Friday, hoping the imagery would prompt the parties in the Mideast to envision a future without the horrors of warfare.

On other matters, Mr. Obama said he's seen "some progress" in bringing stability to the world in the wake of the deep recession that has crisscrossed the continents in recent months, and said he and Merkel agreed that they must continue to "work very closely together" to restore their economies and those of other nations as well. He also said he didn't seek any commitments from Germany as the United States seeks to close the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and determines what to do with the terrorism suspects there.

The two leaders spoke after meeting privately at a castle in Dresden, a city crushed by allied bombing in World War II when it was in East Germany. He later toured the Buchenwald concentration camp, where an estimated 56,000 people perished. Most were Jews - worked to death, shot or hanged by Nazi guards.

"More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished," said Mr. Obama. "I will not forget what I've seen here today." (Click here to read Mark Knoller's account of the visit.)

His symbolic tour of Buchenwald follows a scathing indictment in his Cairo speech of those who question the Holocaust. Mr. Obama said that to do so "is baseless, it is ignorant, and it is hateful."

"Threatening Israel with destruction or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews is deeply wrong and only serves to evoke in the minds of the Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve," Mr. Obama added. It was a pointed message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis and who has urged that Israel be wiped from the map.

[cydygitt1]

Republican Lugar Says Obama?s Cairo Speech ?Signal Achievement?

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Senator Richard Lugar praised President Barack Obama?s Cairo address to the Muslim world as a ?signal achievement? and dismissed Republican criticism that the speech was too apologetic.

The speech was important and necessary, said Lugar, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, noting a ?lack of sympathy for our country? in many Muslim nations.

?We probably as Americans need to give a lot of speeches in the Arab world,? the Indiana senator said in an interview on Bloomberg Television?s ?Political Capital with Al Hunt,? airing this weekend. Obama?s language on Iran was tough enough and was meant to reassure Arab countries, which also are concerned about Iran?s quest to acquire nuclear weapons, Lugar said.

bloomberg.com

[gaye5]

melchg07 you said where did God come from.
We are only just beginning to understand the immensity of time and space, and all we have to work with is our tiny little brain which has only a small portion of it working..

[gaye5]

Void_Master,
Bukhari:V4B53N412 ?Allah?s Apostle said on the day of the conquest of Mecca, ?There is no migration now, only Jihad, holy battle. And when you are called for Jihad, you should come out at once.??

Bukhari:V4B52N311 ?Allah?s Apostle said, ?There is no migration after the Conquest of Mecca, but only Jihad. When you are called by the Muslim ruler for Jihad fighting, you should go forth immediately, responding to the call.??

Qur?an 47:4 ?So, when you clash with the unbelieving Infidels in battle (fighting Jihad in Allah?s Cause), smite their necks until you overpower them, killing and wounding many of them. At length, when you have thoroughly subdued them, bind them firmly, making (them) captives. Thereafter either generosity or ransom (them based upon what benefits Islam) until the war lays down its burdens. Thus are you commanded by Allah to continue carrying out Jihad against the unbelieving infidels until they submit to Islam.?

Qur?an 9:122 ?It is not proper for the Believers to all go forth together to fight Jihad. A troop from every expedition should remain behind when others go to war.?

Noble Qur?an 2:190 Footnote: ?Jihad is holy fighting in Allah?s Cause with full force of numbers and weaponry. It is given the utmost importance in Islam and is one of its pillars. By Jihad Islam is established,

Bukhari:V4B52N54 ?The Prophet said, ?Were it not for the believers who do not want to be without me, I would always go forth in army-units setting out for Jihad.??
and many more..

[Audacity_of_Deception]

I think no U.S. President has attempted this like Obama has.
Posted by stuart2000

That's because we've never had a president as loyal to Islam as Obama is. He's spent more time devouting his time and efforts and loyalty to Islam in his first 5 months as president. No suprises, considering his life story and the "church" he went to for 20 years that hates Israel and gave Louis Farakan a lifetime achievement award.

Obama the hidden muslim fools no one except the gullible.

[Audacity_of_Deception]

Christianity is the Biggest Weapon of Mass Deception ever made up.
Posted by king-diamond

You could only wish.

[wdh3007]

Who's side is this president on or is he a centrist and why didn't his wife accompany him to Saudi Arabia but waited for him in France could it be that arabs look at women as third rate citizens or worse yet garbage. If that is the case then it gives the impression that most arabs are rather racist in a so called peaceful religion.

[realnews12]

I wonder when CBS is going to report on Obama's ordering Gates to sell the plans for the B-2 Stealth bomer to China for $50 BILLION in debt relief?

Posted by IThoughtItWasFunnyAgain at 3:14 PM : Jun 5, 2009

Boy, are you gullible. You read this is some crackpot far-right website and you actually believed it ??? LOL

[sprowlindak]

President Obama has challenged US to 'continue the conversation' to which I wholeheartedly agree ... when has any President ever spoken Arabic, understood Muslim spiritual teachings, put himself out-there? Obama offers a new image of US, one of peace not war. Intelligent people engage in conversation and find common ground; stupid people declare 'war'. Is it a good idea to have our military controlled by Republicans who have a long history of being bullies? The Democratic Party ideology is fundamentally about peace.

Middle-Eastern obsession with Jihad is reflective of their long memory of the Crusades which was organized and performed by Catholics, not Christians ... This is pay-back time to descendants' victims ... Unfortunately for US and for them Arabs don't differentiate between the two and, neither do most of US. Let me clarify the difference with one idea ... Christ never taught murder as a means of conversion. Therefore, Catholics were never real Christians ... The Arab world must learn this differentiation and, well must we.

[YrSoWrong]

Or the nuking of Iran.

[babooph]

With bitterness there running bottomless,only giving Israelis US passports & closing the place down would calm it all now.

[Void_Master]

Sorry... that Holocaust post was meant for another thread.

[Void_Master]

Literally speaking, the word "holocaust" pertains to the complete destruction of something by fire. The word itself is from a Latin word (holocaustum) that originally had a Greek derivative (holokauston). In modern times, it comes primarily from the Old French "holocauste" and is uniquely European -- as was what happened to the Jews of Europe.

Thus their taking that word in reference to what the Nazis did is legitimate.

[melchg07]

king-diamond , I suppose you are one of those people who believe that first of all there was nothing out there and then that nothing exploded???
Then that nothing turned into flowers, trees, insects, fish, dinosaurs, whales, microscopic things, viruses etc..
Many hundreds of scientists have start out their career by not believing in God but have often end up saying that what they have found in science is so incredible that there has to be something for all this incredible universe to fits so well together and works so incredibly that it cant have just happened.
But it really doesn?t matter if you don?t believe as when we die, if those who believe are wrong they have nothing to loose, but if you are wrong????
Posted by gaye5 at 4:08 PM

And where did God come from?

[YrSoWrong]

Like when certain people post and repost the same thing?

[Void_Master]

A "jihad" is simply a "holy war." That's really all that it means.

[YrSoWrong]

Except for some of our bloggers.

[gravyboat3000]

There is no such thing as "jihad" in the West.
Posted by King_

Please explain what exactly jihad is. Be specific, and provide us with ALL the meanings of this word in the Muslim world.

[King_of_FA]

There is no such thing as "jihad" in the West.

[bajajohn1]

Western civilizations Jihad was called the Crusades.

[gaye5]

king-diamond , I suppose you are one of those people who believe that first of all there was nothing out there and then that nothing exploded???
Then that nothing turned into flowers, trees, insects, fish, dinosaurs, whales, microscopic things, viruses etc..
Many hundreds of scientists have start out their career by not believing in God but have often end up saying that what they have found in science is so incredible that there has to be something for all this incredible universe to fits so well together and works so incredibly that it cant have just happened.
But it really doesn?t matter if you don?t believe as when we die, if those who believe are wrong they have nothing to loose, but if you are wrong????