600 lucky students from universities and colleges across Israel are attending the very anticipated Barack Obama speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the excitement is high as no one really knows what the American President will be talking about.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
600 lucky students from universities and colleges across Israel are attending the very anticipated Barack Obama speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem, the excitement is high as no one really knows what the American President will be talking about.
Although there was an air of skepticism in the hall where over 3000 people gathered to hear what the American President had to say, it seemed that Obama managed to win them over. Barack Obama, President of the United States “Make no mistake, those who adhere to the ideology of rejecting Israel’s right to exist — they might as well reject the earth beneath them and the sky above, because Israel’s not going anywhere. So long as there is a United States of America: “Atem lo levad”. You are not alone! Israel is the most powerful country in this region. Israel has the unshakable support of the most powerful country in the world. Israel is not going anywhere. Israel has the wisdom to see the world as it is, but –but this is — this is in your nature — Israel also the courage to see the world as it should be. Sometimes the greatest miracle is recognizing that the world can change. That’s a lesson that the world has learned from the Jewish people”.
Major General, Amos Yadlin, who served as the Israeli Military Attaché in Washington, claims Obama has redeemed himself with the Jerusalem speech.
Amos Yadlin, Director, Institute for National Security Studies:
If you compare this evening, which is a wonderful evening, to the 2009 trip to Cairo, when he spoke basically on the right of Israel to be a Jewish state because of the Holocaust and never pay any attention to the 3000-years that we have been here, he corrected it, he spoke to what Israelis care about this time. And I think this is a big change and this will be, I believe, a change in the attitudes of the people in Israel to the President.
Dov Lipman, newly elected Member Knesset from Yesh Atid, who emigrated from the United States in 2004, was very impressed by the American President.
Dov Lipman, Member Knesset (Yesh Atid):
I think he has done a fantastic job. I was a skeptical beforehand; I didn’t know how much can a presidential visit really do, but they’ve definitely catered it towards messages towards the Israeli people. Listen, as a member of the Knesset, he didn’t come to speak to the Knesset. And a lot of people were hurt by that. But I think that his point was, that we’ve tried politics before and it hasn’t really gone very far, lets make it more human and reach out to the people. He has done a masterful job of doing that I hear on the street. And I think, the same way the Knesset we brought new blood in, and put none politicians in the mix it helps tremendously, I think that’s going to help in the American-Israeli relationship as well.
The most crucial question was, did Barack Obama convince Israel’s next generation, the students, in his sincerity.
Maxim Pachter, Technion University:
I thought that it was a great speech. He spoke directly to us, to the next generation, to the future of Israel. He spoke to the students, I was really impressed.
Hannah Yam, Bar Ilan University:
He did give me some hope and I really connected to many of the things he said”.
Carol Daniel Kasbari, Palestinian from East Jerusalem (www.commongroundnews.org):
I was a little bit too much Israeli, too much… but then I understood that it’s all about connecting us to his idea of peace and he really knew how to get to peoples heart.
Iris Cohen, Hebrew University:
I think everyone was impressed with the way he said things. I just don’t know how well the new government in Israel is going to take all these message that he is now given us.
Ron Jacobsohn, JN1 Correspondent:
There was no doubt in anyone’s mind that President Obama hit all the right notes in his speech but more than that the students who came to listen to him truly believed him that he will do anything in his power to bring real and lasting peace to the region.
For JN1, I am Ron Jacobsohn at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem.
