Excerpts from a friend's newsletter:
P. Obama said in his speech in Egypt, "holy Koran, Holy Bible, meaning the NT, but said just Torah and Talmud, no holy. This omission was not lost on the arab or Jewish audience. He continued the normal rhetoric for Land for Peace, Road Maps, Palestinian Statehood with a renewed and fresh vigor. I wasn't surprised: This is the kicker:
The three words, "NO NATURAL GROWTH!" I listened in real shock as he demanded that the Israeli government put a halt to "all natural growth" in the Jewish settlements across the Green Line of pre-1967 Israel. Demanding "no natural growth" in the settlements to the casual listener might seem like a very small thing - no more building allowed - but that is not what it really means. "No natural growth" actually means "NO MORE BABIES ALLOWED!" That is really what it means.
There is a phrase of the Sages of Israel in the Talmud and Midrashim that one hears quite often, "The final redemption will be like the first redemption." I have never completely understood that phrase until I listened in frustration and excitement to Obama's speech to the Islamic World in Egypt. If we turn to the Torah in Exodus 1, we actually find the same speech of "No Natural Growth." Not since Pharaoh has anyone told us "No More Babies," but that is exactly what the president of the USA told Israel in this speech. How could he have given a speech anywhere else BUT EGYPT, and how could he haev told Israel anything else - after all "the final redemption will be like the first redemption."
To his credit, PM Netanyahu replied that this demand of the US administration was "unreasonable." And in a later interview with the BBC, obama replied that, "It is still early in the fame and Netanyanu would eventually come around."
Next:
In the Arab Middle East, every small thing, a gesture, an inflection, one's clothing, whether one sits, stands, or bows is something of greatest significance. Most people thought it only polite that Obama was the first American President to bow down to the King of Saudi Arabia - the Arabs understood the gesture completely. Again when press photos were released prior to PM Netanyahu's summons to Washington, they showed the American Presient on the phone with the Israeli Prime Minister, his feet propped on the desk of the Oval Office with the sole of his shoe being the most prominent feature of the photograph. To most western minds there was nothing sinister or hidden here, but the Arabs understood the gesture completely. In the Arab world, the most insulting thing one person can do to another (especially if they are leaders) is to show the sole of the shoe. This is what happened to P. Bush in Iraq when an Arab shoe suddenly came flying towards his face during a press briefing. The Arabs understood completely that Obama was showing his shoe to the jew Natanyahu, and I think Obama understood also.
I am not worried in the least about the State of Israel, but I am deeply concerned about the future of the United States as our President in June 2009 took up the mantle of the Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. Remember, the final redemption will be like the first redemption!
Here is a R. Richman's commentary on P. Obama's visit to Egypt:
R. Nathan Lopes Cardozo's response to P. Obama: