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Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/29/AR2009052902219.html
Memo to President Obama
[Washington Post] Jim Hoagland - Cling to one thought as you work on your greatly anticipated speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Cairo, Mr. President: There is no American solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict that you can heroically deliver from on high. Peace must be built from the bottom up by the warring sides. It would be pleasing to your hosts to suggest a made-in-the-USA plan for the Middle East. Some of your aides believe this is a special moment that can end the region's Sixty Years' War if you intervene forcefully enough. But that neglects history and the internal logic of the conflict. Your own face-off with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu two weeks ago suggested that you hoped to bring a West Bank settlement freeze to the Cairo masses and a global Muslim audience this week. Netanyahu pushed back by ruling out unilateral gestures, insisting that Israel, the Palestinians and moderate Arab states move simultaneously. The settlements cannot be treated in isolation or used as trophies with which to win Arab favor.