Obama's Cairo Speech: A Look Back

Last week the NewsTrust community focused on President Obama's visit to the Middle East. We compared stories from different news publications covering his address to the Muslim world, the reactions from around the world -- and how this impacts U.S. Foreign Policy. Here are the results from last week's news comparisons.

The Speech
Billed as an olive branch to the Islamic world, President Obama's speech from Cairo University Thursday morning received much attention from news media around the world, mainstream and independent. But despite a high volume of analysis and opinion on the event, many of the stories we reviewed tended to repeat the same "deeds not words" message -- that to improve the United States' reputation in the Middle East, Obama must match rhetoric with policy.

A news analysis from the Los Angeles Times and another from the Washington Post were our top rated post-speech stories. The L.A. Times took the view that Obama's speech "didn't provide enough concrete solutions" to fully win over his audience, but was enough to cast him as a "conciliator, not a warrior." The Post, notably more positive, focused on how Obama used "new language" -- which included quoting from the Koran, Bible and Talmud -- to demonstrate a sensitivity to both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The L.A. Times remarked briefly on the same, but was less impressed, saying, "Obama will need to recite more than holy text to convince his audience that his words will be followed by change."

The New Republic compared Obama to former presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush and criticized the speech for its lack of detail; the Christian Science Monitor praised Obama's "candor" toward the Arab-Israeli peace process; and the New York Times commented on how Obama's remarks to Muslims echoed those of his predecessor.

Arab and Israeli Reaction
Reactions to the speech from Cairo proved generally difficult to pinpoint; some publications were more successful than others at identifying a trend or shared view for a particular group. New America Media focused specifically on how Syrian Muslims, from shopkeepers to activists, responded to Obama's words, finding that while many saw it as a change in U.S. attitude, quite a few remained skeptical of a shift in policy. The BBC, meanwhile, rounded up a dozen op-eds and editorials from Israeli newspapers, all of which cast the speech to some degree as a "marking a clear shift in ties between the U.S. and Israel." Al Jazeera interviewed a handful of Arab intellectuals after the speech and called them "unsurprisingly split" over Obama's sincerity.

Political Freedom in Egypt
Earlier in the week, as Egypt made the final preparations for Obama's arrival, a number of publications ran stories on the hypocrisy of Obama delivering a message of conciliation and democracy in a country where political and social freedoms are repressed and one man has been president for nearly three decades. Stories on the lack of political freedom in Egypt -- and on Cairo University campus -- from McClatchy, the Washington Post and the Daily News Egypt were rated highly by our community.

Other issues that arose leading up to the speech included debate over Obama's call for Israel to cease construction of new settlements in the Palestinian territories and polling on rising U.S. approval ratings in the Middle East.

Top Stories on Foreign Policy
Most of the stories above were featured on our U.S. Foreign Policy topic page. Here are our full listings of top rated stories from that week, ranked by rating and by date.

• Top Stories by Rating (most trusted)  

• Top Stories by Date (most recent)  

This Week: U.S. Congress
This week we're comparing news stories about the U.S. Congress. Although Democrats control the House and Senate, President Obama has made clear that he plans to engage Congress differently than his predecessor. We're looking for quality news and opinion from across the political spectrum on the relationship between Congress and the White House. Help us find the best journalism on this topic: review (or submit) related stories on our U.S. Congress topic page.

-- Derek Hawkins, with Fabrice Florin and Kaizar Campwala

Comments

[ziex]

First, as I understand it, President Obama was in Cairo for the first time addressing his audience where he was. Yes, the speech was an international telecast. No, I didn't hear him say that he meant his comments for the "Muslim world." ...which covers a lot of ground not all in the Gulf States or the Middle East.

In my view, he was addressing those directly concerned with the Palestinian situation -- the region, not the faith ...

Second, I saw him -- as most statesmen and academics of quality are known to do -- toss on the table the leading consensus, make the remark that it seems most viable, AND state that the United States would work 'with the regional stakeholders' to come to a resolution that would benefit the entire world. He said that a two-state solution seemed most appropriate given the history, one shared and recognized in many previous situations with similar dynamics.

Lastly, he shared with the world the encouraging observation that many have voiced interest in a two-state solution ---in private ...and should start talking about, together, in public to make it happen.

[bjbead.com]

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[massager]

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