Palestine: Obama's second chance

Obama's much lauded 2009 speech in Cairo was encouraging if only because it ended the 'them and us' rhetoric which characterised two terms of 'crusading' Bush incitement.

And precisely for this reason the complete lack of initiative shown by his regime on the Middle East has been as much an insult to the intelligence of Palestinians as it has been a disappointment to their aspirations.

Despite Netanyahu's constant nose-thumbing, the US has singularly failed to reign in the vulgar - at times brutal - excesses of a militarised state which feels it can act with impunity, let alone advance an idea which promises to break the deadlock.

Obama's speech today certainly fails to do the latter, but we should perhaps dare to hope that it hints at the former. All he is doing is taking America closer to positions established in international law, and more importantly, to the moral claims of people who have been systematically forced from their lands by American tax money.

Streamers and fireworks are of course not in order, but contra Hamas, Obama has made an implicit promise long absent in American presidential discourse: we will not accept or support Israel's effective claim to Palestinian lands occupied since 1967.

We must not expect an end to the mealy-mouthed urging of restraint on both sides or the chumminess with a man whose hands are soaked in Palestinian blood and whose mind appears addled by fear and power. Still, rattled perhaps by the moral weight of Sunday's protests, he has drawn a line in the sand which is clear to all sides.

A promise gives him a second chance, and if he keeps it he may well lose his office. He would prove himself a more impressive character for it.