Jerusalem speech through lens of Arab media: 'Obama the sycophant'
Arab world has slightly different take on US president's Jerusalem speech, claiming he fawns over Israel and seeks to please Israeli leaders, public
Arab media mentioned that the US president identified with the suffering of the Palestinian people, emphasized his threats toward Iran and Syria but did not spare their criticism of Obama's warm embrace of the Israeli public. "Israeli Obama is a sycophant," said the media.
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The al-Sharq al-Awsat newspaper wrote: "President Obama promises the Palestinians a state and pleads with Israelis to put themselves in their (the Palestinians) place." Al Hayat's headline was more tendentious in light of the difference of opinion between the US government and senior Palestinian officials: "Obama is frustrating the Palestinians and fawning over Israelis."
Al Bayan: Obama demands more from Palestinians
Al-Arabiya chose to highlight the Syrian angle of the speech: "Obama threatens Hezbollah and Assad from Jerusalem," was their headline of choice. "He (Obama) called on Israelis to consider Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and called on Assad to resign."
Al Jazeera chose to focus on a different aspect of the speech: "Obama calls on Arabs to normalize relations with Israel."
Al Jazeera: Obama sympathizes with Israel, gives aid
Lebanon's Al Akhbar newspaper which is affiliated with Hezbollah did not have a favorable view of the speech. The headline read: "Obama calls on Palestinians to recognize the Jewish country … and described Hezbollah as a terror group. Obama obeys Israel's authority."
Obama hugs Israel at Arab world's expense
The article went on to claim: "The president's stance is not surprising … he refuses to see the occupation from the ground and chooses instead to come to Ramallah by helicopter. Yet young Palestinians fulfilled their duty in occupied Jerusalem when they shouted out the facts."
Yet the sharpest criticism of Obama's speech came from an editorial published by editor in chief of Al Quds Al Arabi, Abdel Bari Atwan. Under the headline "Obama the Israeli sycophant," the article stated: "I have never in my life seen a president who toadies to the Israelis so much and seeks to please them; who gives their achievements and history as much praise as US President Barack Obama."
Al Quds Al Arabi
In the editorial, the writer expressed his disappointment over the warmth exhibited by Obama towards Israel and its leaders.
"We mistakenly expected that this man, because of the color of his skin and his association with a group that suffered from decade of persecution, the man who spoke with bitterness of racism towards his ancestors in Chicago…we expected something different from him something closer to understanding our nation's pain under the Zionist occupation, but he disappointed us."
El Hayat: Obama goes sightseeing
Atwan admitted that "Barack Hussein Obama surprised us in his speech before a group of young Israelis in occupied Jerusalem when he demanded that Palestinians recognize Israel as the Jewish state and when he entreated with Arabs to normalize relations with Israel, telling those who deny its right to exist that their denial is like denying the earth and the sky."
Atwan concluded his piece by saying "We don't know why Obama used these words and why he was so shamefully obsequious - Israel is the one who threatens our existence and denying our rights."
He added: "Israel is the one in possession of over 300 nuclear warheads capable of destroying the region."
Meanwhile, Hezbollah responded to US President Barack Obama's speech in Jerusalem on Thursday, in which the US president stated that Hezbollah was a terror group. "Obama is a full partner in the enemy's crimes and is trying to place conditions for Arabs to accept the enemy as a purely Jewish state in the region."
Hezbollah further claimed that "Obama spoke as if he worked for the Zionist entity rather than as the most senior official in an independent country.
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