A day before his reconciliation speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, senior Palestinian officials on Wednesday said they like what they have seen so far from US President Barack Obama.
Obama is determined to endear America to the Muslim world, and the Palestinians are confident that effort will come at Israel’s expense.
“Looks like we finally have a friend in the White House who is sympathetic to the Arab cause,” a Palestinian cabinet minister told The Jerusalem Post. The minister said he was following with “great satisfaction” the growing rift between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
A senior aide to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said the US has always been the only country capable of imposing the two-state solution on Israel, and looks like with Obama, there is finally a president willing to use that power.
Abbas returned from a visit to Washington last week optimistic that Obama was going to put an end to the Jewish presence in Judea, Samaria and the eastern half of Jerusalem. Since then, Obama has put heavy pressure on Israel to halt even natural growth of Jewish communities in those areas.