In the wake of the American president's speech at Cairo University comes a flurry of reactions. This diary attempts to collect some of these.
None come from United States pundits or reporters. All reactions below are from the international media, and I encourage comments that reveal more.
First, immediate reaction to the speech as reported by al Jazeera's English-language news service. In a lengthy story that mostly recapped the speech, the report rounded up immediate reactions:
Immediately after the wide-ranging speech, Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera's senior political analyst, said it helped undo "the harm done by the Bush administration."
"[The speech] was about willingness to engage in soft power while keeping the military option alive," Marwan said.
"It was a soft imperial speech that wanted to engage ... restore justice to the world and restore America's reputation.
"It reminded America of its new duties, of democracy, freedom... without, at the same time, discounting the use of military power."...
A spokesman for Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, described Obama's speech as a "good start".
"His call for stopping settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of Palestinians ... is a clear message to Israel that a just peace is built on the foundations of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," Nabil Abu Rdainah said.
"President Obama's speech is a good start and an important step towards a new American policy," he said.
Ahmad Yousuf, a senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera that Obama's speech reminded him of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech".
About Obama stressing on the legitimacy of Israel, he said the Palestinians must have a state of their own before being asked to recognise another.
But the message that America is not a threat to the Muslim world is a good signal, he said.
The Gulf News surveyed a series of Arab intellectuals for their reactions to the speech. You can read the mixed reactions in full here. Briefly, Syrian reactions ranged from a sense that this would open up opportunities for women and democracy in the region to suspicion that Obama is only doing this because it benefits the United States and that little will change in the region. The reactions are worth reading in full to reveal the points of concern that may not get attention in the American media.
How did the speech play in Israel? In an essay headlined "Obama's admirable, vital new beginning... and unfortunate first misstep," the Jerusalem Post's David Horovitz had largely warm praise for the speech:
From the broader, non-partisan Israeli perspective, it was heartening to hear the president tell the Muslim world of America's "unbreakable bond" with our country, and to hear him highlight the "cultural and historical ties" at the heart of that relationship, rather than mere cold, potentially transient, American interests.
It was good to hear him make clear that the Arab League peace initiative was "an important beginning but not the end of [Arab states'] responsibilities," and to urge the Arab world "to recognize Israel's legitimacy" and stop using the Arab-Israeli conflict as a pretext "to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems."
Horovitz was not uncritical, particularly in regards to Obama's discussion of nuclear power in Iran or what he called the "jarring...even-handed attribution of blame for the failure of peace efforts." Horovitz concluded with a demand of "Muslim recognition of our fundamental right to be here, precisely here," which is vital to any actions President Obama may take.
In Israel, the harshest rhetoric so far comes, unsurprisingly, from the settlers:
"The State of Israel is paying the price for its leaders' defeatism," the Samaria and Binyamin Settlement Committee said in a statement. "Hussein Obama chose to affirm the brazen lies of the Arabs over the stammered Jewish truth.
"It is time for Netanyahu, like (former prime ministers) Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Shamir, to stand as a proud right-wing leader and reject the doctored version of history Obama tried to dictate today."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was a bit more cautious, calling a special consultation of the Israeli government immediately after it was over. Since the speech advocated a two-state solution, which antagonizes the right-wing base of Netanyahu's coalition, Netanyahu must weigh the popularity of the American president with the desires that elevated him to power over a precarious coalition.
The other immediate international reactions are brief ones; see for example, the tweets Marc Ambinder compiled this morning. Most of the English-language newspapers in the Middle East have not filed reactions to the speech as of the writing of this diary, but I encourage anyone who finds them to add reactions in comments.
UPDATE: Some early reactions from Indonesia, courtesy of the Jakarta Post:
Indonesian Muslims lauded President Barack Obama’s speech delivered to Islamic world in Cairo as "impressive" and "high quality". But they said the substance of the one-hour speech was "hardly new".
"People are waiting for him to bring a new perspective on the issue of Palestine," Muslim scholar Abdillah Toha told a seminar held by the Center for Dialogue and Cooperation among Civilizations.
He said Obama failed in his speech to bring forth a "breakthrough" approach to settling the Arab-Israeli conflict, deemed by many as the mother of all conflicts and one of the main issues undermining US-Muslim relations for decades.
Muhammadiyah chairman Din Syamsudin praised Obama's eloquence even when he quoted verses from the Koran. "Now we'd like to see the realization of his speech," he said.