Hamas reacts to Obama's speech - by Alex Koppelman
In the U.S. media, the reaction to President Obama's speech in Cairo is dominated by the usual reactions. Liberals -- for the most part -- liked it. Conservatives -- again, for the most part -- hated it, and are complaining that it showed a lack of backbone, or even a dangerous naivete on Obama's part. That's all well and good, but ultimately it's not the reaction here in the U.S. that matters, and Americans weren't even the target audience. The important reactions come from people like Khaled Meshal, the leader of Hamas. Meshal spoke with Time's Joe Klein after the speech, and he was, unsurprisingly, not overwhelmed. But he did at least sound open-minded, Klein said, and that's a start.
And when Klein asked about one section of Obama's speech condemning terror attacks, and about the deliberate targeting of civilians, a response from an aide to Meshal showed, further, the difficulty the U.S. has in being seen as the neutral arbiter it fancies itself. "But civilians die in wars," the aide said. "You call it collateral damage."
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