President Barack Obama's historic speech to the Muslim world evoked mixed response in the Middle East.
President Barack Obama's historic speech to the Muslim world evoked mixed response in the Middle East with the Palestinian Authority describing it as a "good start" but right-wing Israelis slammed it and asked Tel Aviv's leadership to stay defiant amid calls to halt settlements.
In his speech aimed at healing rifts between the US and the Muslim world, Obama said: "Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's."
The US president also issued a scathing criticism of Israel's settlement activities in the West Bank, saying "the US does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements... It is time for these settlements to stop."
"His call for stopping settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of Palestinians... is a clear message to Israel that a just peace is built on the foundations of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," an aide to PA president Mahmoud Abbas said.
"President Obama's speech is a good start and an important step towards a new American policy," said Nabil Abu Rdeineh, who normally views Abbas' opinion to the public.
The Israeli right wings, however, condemned Obama's warming up to the Islamic world and asked the Jewish state's leadership to stay defiant on the issue of settlements.
"Obama ignored the fact that the Palestinians have not abandoned terror," Daniel Herschkowitz, chairman of Habayit Hayehudi, said during a tour of settlements south of Hebron.
"The government of Israel is not America's lackey. The relations with the Americans are based on friendship and not submission, and therefore Israel must tell Obama that stopping natural growth in the settlements is a red line," he said.
Zev Orlev, another member of the same party, also reacted with dismay to the Obama's comments.
"The speech raises fears and worries about (fate) of America's balanced relationship towards Israel," Orlev said, adding "I have a bad feeling... traditional commitments of the US towards the security needs which ensure the existence and independence of the state of Israel are being eroded".
Settler leaders reacted with fury in the wake of Obama's demand to put a complete halt to settlement activities.
"Today, the State of Israel is paying the price of its leaders' defeatism," Yesha Council, which represents the settler communities in the West Bank, said in a statement.
"Hussein Obama gave priority to Arab lies, which have always been told with determination and daring, at the expense of the Jewish truth, which has been said in a weak and unconfident voice," it said.
The council asked prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to emulate former prime ministers Begin and Shamir and "stand up like a proud Jew and reject Obama's fabricated history".
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