Honest Broker

I am deeply touched with US President Barack Obama’s speech in Cairo, Egypt today. It again reflected the intellectual prowess that Obama possess. This is what President Obama does very well. Take two points of view -- communities or groups of people who look at the world differently and then build a bridge. And build that bridge without doing any disservice or disrespect to either side and to either's world view.

He's done this with whites and blacks in America, with liberals and conservatives -- and now of course on a global scale he's doing with the world of Islam and broadly speaking the rest of the world. His willingness to understand and apply common sense in proposing approaches to solution for vexed issues often mixed with perceptions is remarkable to say the least. His uncanny ability to distinguish facts from perception has already made him one of the world’s greatest leader.

President Obama today clearly showed the distinction between Muslim fundamentalist/extremist vs. Muslim as a whole. For too long US has been using the word terrorist synonymous with Muslims. President Obama’s speech in Cairo was gracious but not fawning, blunt but not patronizing. His call for a new beginning in relations between America and Islamic nations based on mutual interest and mutual respect should soften animosity among Islamic leaders who felt either ignored or abused by the Bush administration. Obama’s position on Israeli settlements was a significant departure from past Presidents. The evenhandedness of his criticism offers the hope that he may become a truly honest broker for Mideast peace. I was especially happy to see his decision not to balance a visit to Saudi Arabia and Egypt with a stop in Tel Aviv as an honest approach to find a real solution to a real problem.

Such frankness by a US President respected in the Arab world could break down entrenched positions that have stood in the way of progress and more often than not feeds into the rhetoric of Islamic extremists.