Palestinians watch a television broadcast of a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama in the U.S., at a shop in Gaza City May 19, 2011. In a statement after President Obama’s speech outlining Middle East strategy, Netanyahu said on Thursday Israel would object to any withdrawal to “indefensible” borders, adding he expected Washington to allow it to keep major settlement blocs in any peace deal. REUTERS/Ismail Zaydah

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama laid out his vision for
the Middle East and North Africa during a key speech in Washington this week.

On the issue of Palestine, Obama said: “The borders of
Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,
so that secure and recognized borders are established for both states.

“The Palestinian people must have the right to govern
themselves, and reach their potential, in a sovereign and contiguous state.

“As for security, every state has the right to self-defense,
and Israel must be able to defend itself – by itself – against any
threat.”

Reacting to the address shortly afterwards, Binyamin
Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said a Palestinian state should not be
established at the “expense of Israeli existence.”  He appreciated the U.S. president’s
address but rejected any withdrawal to “indefensible” 1967 borders.

Al Jazeera’s Nisreen El-Shamayleh, reporting from Jerusalem,
said: “In different parts of his speech Obama shifted from a view closer
to the Israeli approach to negotiations and at other times closer to the
Palestinian approach.

“He supported the Palestinians’ idea of territorial
contingency – meaning that the Israelis would have to withdraw  from some of the settlement blocs in
order for the Palestinian state to be viable and enjoy that contingency.

“He also said that settlement construction had to stop.
That is obviously another thing the Palestinians would like to hear from Obama.

“Obama more importantly talked about the status quo and
how it was unsustainable. That is bad news for [Binyamin] Netanyahu [the
Israeli prime minister].

“On the other hand, Obama supported other approaches of
the Israelis that they share in common.

“In that Jerusalem will be discussed later … refugees
will be discussed later … the Palestinian state has to be demilitarized …
Israel must enjoy security.”

Obama’s speech came a day ahead of a visit to Washington by
Netanyahu.

On Thursday, the Israeli interior ministry requested and
received the approval of Netanyahu’s office ahead of his U.S. visit to begin
holding hearings on an additional 1,550 housing units in the settlements of Har
Homa and Pisgat Ze’ev, both located beyond the 1967 borders.

“What Obama needs to do is not to add slogans but to
take concrete steps to protect the rights of the Palestinian people and the
Arab nation,” said Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman.

During his address to the U.S. State Department on Thursday,
Obama said Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, must either lead his country through
a democratic transition or “get out of the way.”

Obama said Syria’s brutal crackdown on pro-reform activists
was unacceptable.

He said Assad could no longer rule through repression and
must change course if he wants international acceptance.

More than 850 people are believed to have been killed in two
months of unrest in Syria.

Obama’s speech came a day after he imposed sanctions on
Assad and six other officials for human rights abuses during the crackdown.

The president said two leaders in the region had stepped
down and that more may follow. The president also said the future of the U.S.
was bound to the region.

Iran ‘meddling’

Turning to Bahrain and Yemen, Obama said: “We must
acknowledge that our friends in the region have not all reacted to the demands
for change consistent with the principles that I have outlined today.

“That is true in Yemen, where President [Ali Abdullah]
Saleh needs to follow through on his commitment to transfer power. And that is
true, today, in Bahrain.

“We have insisted publicly and privately that mass
arrests and brute force are at odds with the universal rights of Bahrain’s
citizens, and will not make legitimate calls for reform go away.

“The only way forward is for the government and
opposition to engage in a dialogue, and you can’t have a real dialogue when
parts of the peaceful opposition are in jail.

“The government must create the conditions for
dialogue, and the opposition must participate to forge a just future for all
Bahrainis.”

The president also said that Iran had “tried to take
advantage of the turmoil there.”

Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from Cairo, said the
speech basically translated to “democracy good, repression bad.”

“He slapped a few American allies, saying if people
want change you can’t stand in the way,” Fisher said.

Economic investment

Addressing the death of Osama bin Laden, the president said
the al-Qaeda leader was a mass murderer, not a martyr, whose ideas were being
rejected even before he was killed.

Turning to Libya, he said: “In Libya, we saw the
prospect of imminent massacre, had a mandate for action, and heard the Libyan
people’s call for help.

“Had we not acted along with our NATO allies and
regional coalition partners, thousands would have been killed.”

Obama also laid out a major economic initiative in the
Middle East to encourage democratic change in the region, beginning with
Tunisia and Libya.

The president said the Overseas Private Investment
Corporation, a U.S. government agency, “will soon launch a $2bn facility
to support private investment across the region.”

“And we will work with allies to refocus the European
Bank for Reconstruction and Development so that it provides the same support
for democratic transitions and economic modernization in the Middle East and
North Africa as it has in Europe,” he said,

Aljazeera and agencies