Obama on Al Arabiya

"U.S. Is 'Not Your Enemy,' Obama Tells Islamic World"
A8, Wednesday 1/28/09
By Alan Cowell

Obama’s deft handling of Palestinian propaganda was not conveyed in this piece. In the interview, Al Arabiya’s Hisham Melhem tells Obama of the mass frustration because a two-state solution is slipping away…due to Israeli settlements. Melhem asks Obama what he would say to these frustrated souls.

Obama responds that he thinks it’s “possible for us to see a Palestinian state that is contiguous,” which is a point left out in this article. This an important point that Obama answers the charge that settlements have made a Palestinian state in the West Bank impossible.

One paragraph typifies the way the Times presents the source of Middle Eastern ire directed at the US.

"Let’s see your promise, American president, for an independent Palestinian state,” said a commenter on Al Arabiya’s Web site. “Then for sure we will learn to love America through your actions.”

If only the creation of an independent Palestinian state next to Israel, not in place of it, was the overriding goal of Palestinian nationalism. US mediation would then be unnecessary.

Both of the problems above are indicative of Times coverage of Israel: settlements misleadingly portrayed as the nail in the coffin for a two-state solution, and even more misleading, a two-state solution [with Israel retaining its Jewish character and balance of power] is truly desired by the region’s America critics.