Watch Obama's Cairo Speech June 4 Live

Update June 4: See the speech here. Brilliant. 
Per the White House

The speech will be given at 1:10 in the afternoon in Cairo, 6:10 in the morning here in Washington, D.C. No matter where you are, watch it live on WhiteHouse.gov/live. For those abroad, sign up to get text updates in Arabic, Urdu, English or Persian at America.gov.

A White House produced video, which is a stark contrast to anything that the Bush administration ever did to try and educate people about Muslim Americans:

Middle East speech and respect:

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Obama Boldly Going Where No President Has Gone Before

Not space, Egypt.
When you think about it, this is a bold move by Obama. Could you imagine Bush giving a speech in a Muslim country? Not on your life. For years, presidents have shied away from doing anything new or creative to help bring about Middle East peace. Former presidents have stuck with the status quo. But finally, Obama is saying there has to be a little give and take by everyone, including Israel, which is usually left to do whatever it wants. Already, of course, people are saying Obama hates Jewish people, both inside and outside of our country. 

This could be one of Obama's most important speeches ever. Still, it's only a beginning.

When President Obama delivers his address to the Middle East on Thursday from Cairo, he will face the legacy of names like Haditha, Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, places that have become more symbol than geography over nearly a decade of perhaps the most traumatic chapter in America's relationship with the Muslim world.

More than any other president in a generation, Obama enjoys a reservoir of goodwill in the region. His father was Muslim. His outreach in an interview with an Arabic satellite channel, a speech to Turkey's parliament and an address to Iranians on the Persian New Year have inclined many to listen. Just as important, he is not George W. Bush.

But Obama will still encounter a landscape in which two realities often seem to be at work, shaped by those symbols. There is America's version of its policy toward Israel and the Palestinians, Iraq and Afghanistan, and Islamist movements such as Hamas and Hezbollah, defined in recent years by the legacy of the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. There is another reality, from hardscrabble quarters of Beirut and Cairo to war-wrecked neighborhoods of Baghdad, where distrust of the United States runs so deep that almost anything it pronounces, however eloquent, lacks credibility, imposing a burden on Obama to deliver something far more than the unfulfilled pledges of Bush's speeches. WaPo

What do Egyptians and Muslims want to hear from Obama's speech tomorrow?
Egyptian novelist and political commentator Ahdaf Soueif talks to NPR's Robert Siegel:

SIEGEL: Put us in the mind of students at Cairo University who might hear this speech. What could an American president say or do that would conceivably say or do that would be meaningful to them?

SOUIEF: Right, well if we're talking about a wish list, I think just listening to a lot of people here over the last few days people would really like to hear something substantive rather than sort of affirmations that Islam is a great culture and so on.

It would really be quite nice if the president's speech would address all the people of the world. The constant pinpointing of Muslims and the Muslim world that has been so much of Western discourse over the last decade is really something that President Obama needs to turn away from.

It was very much the discourse of the previous administration and even when it's used to say 'Oh, Islam is a great faith, we have no problem with it,' it is still fudging the issues. Because the issues are political rather than cultural.

And so that's really point number one, which is to address political, economic issues and to address the interest of the people rather than make cultural statements to do with Islam.

SIEGEL: When you speak of those issues, you mean what for example?

SOUIEF: Well, topmost in everybody's mind really is the question of Palestine. That is absolutely at the center of all the conflicts in the region. The conflicts that we're living through. The one's that we've had... The president has already spoken about settlements.

We need to hear more. That's what I hear everybody (say). And we need a specific mention of Gaza. The predicament of the people of Gaza, the 1.5 million who are under siege is a very, very hard one and it's close to everyone's heart.

Egypt readies for Obama. Here's something strange--Obama as King Tut.

Why Did Obama Pick Cairo?

Why Cairo? The answer is simple, says Denis McDonough, deputy national security adviser for strategic communications. "Egypt is a longtime strategic ally of the United States," he says. "It's a key country in the Arab and Muslim world … with a burgeoning younger population that the president looks very much forward to engaging."

Read the rest or listen at NPR.
Obama's set to give his speech Thursday. He'll be dining with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia tomorrow. Here's the rest of the plan (read more here):

July 6-8: Obama will be in Russia meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
July 8-10: Obama will attend the G8 in Italy (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States).
July 10-11: Obama will visit Ghana

Obama BBC Interview Previewing His Speech

Read more at BBC.

What Muslims Want to Hear From Obama's Speech

This story lays out the issues, ahead of Obama's speech on Thursday, pretty well:

Respect for Islam, a prescription for Palestinian statehood and assurances of a speedy U.S. pullout from Iraq - that's what Muslims from Morocco to Malaysia want to hear from President Barack Obama this week when he addresses them from this Arab capital.

His speech Thursday from Cairo University will try to soften the fury toward the United States among the world's 1.5 billion Muslims, ignited by the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the hands-off attitude toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict of his predecessor George W. Bush.

Obama's offer of a new beginning is seen as an attempt to stem the growing influence of extremists - particularly Iran, with its regional and nuclear ambitions - and to bolster moderate Muslim allies.
...
Obama "has to walk the talk," said social activist Marina Mahathir, daughter of Malaysia's former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad.

But with rising hopes come the risk of disappointment. Obama isn't expected to present a detailed vision of a Mideast peace deal - potentially the most effective antidote to anti-Western sentiment - until later.

And there is doubt the U.S. president can change entrenched foreign policy, particularly what is perceived in the Muslim world as Washington's pro-Israeli bias. What Muslims see as America's repeated failure to hold Israel to its international obligations is a sore point. A construction freeze in Israeli West Bank settlements - Obama wants it, Israel rejects it - is shaping up as a major test. Read the whole thing at AP.

This is going to be a tough speech for wingnuts. After all, they've still got this ancient battle of the religions thing going on. I expect the rhetoric from the wingnut base to go into overdrive next week.
Check out an Arab opinion poll here.

Ahead of Obama's Speech in Egypt: Arab Opinion Poll

Obama will address the Muslim world in Egypt with a major speech June 4. Ahead of that speech is a new poll, conducted by the Anwar Sadat Chair for Peace and Development at University of Maryland, College Park, shows that Arabs aren't that hopeful about relations with the U.S., which gives Obama a lot of room for progress:

The most important consequence of their favorable views of President Obama appears to be expressed hope for American foreign policy in the Middle East. After a few weeks of the Obama administration, a majority in all countries, 51% (59% outside Egypt) expressed hopefulness about US Middle East policy, 28% were neutral, while only 14% were discouraged.

Expressed hopeful views, however, did not translate into immediate significant reevaluation of attitudes toward the US. 77% of Arabs still identify the United States as one of the two biggest threats they face (the other being Israel). But this is an improvement over 2008, when 88% of Arabs polled so identified the United States. Favorable views of the United States have not changed much since 2008, with the most important change being the decline of the number of people who have “very unfavorable views” of the US, from 64% in 2008 to 46% in 2009. Read more of the poll here.

They favor quick withdrawal from Iraq:

65% of Arabs polled (compared with 61% in 2008) believe that if the US withdraws its forces from Iraq as planned by the end of 2011, Iraqis will find a way to bridge their differences. 72% believe Iraqis are worse off than they were before the Iraq war, but this is a decrease from 82% in 2008.

How they feel about Iran:

There are indications the criticism of Iran, particularly in Morocco and Egypt, is having some impact. 13% identify Iran as one of their two biggest threats (compared with 7% in 2008), and outside Egypt, 20% see Iran as one of the two biggest threats to them, compared with 11% in 2008.

58% believe Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, compared with 39% in 2008. Still, 53% believe that Iran has the right to pursue its nuclear program, while 40% believe Iran should be pressured to stop its program. But this marks a significant change from 2008, when only 22% supported international pressure to stop Iran’s nuclear program.

The leaders they admire most include Hugo Chavez:

The attacks on Hezbollah’s leader Hasan Nasrallah, especially in Egypt and Morocco, appear to be having an impact. In an open question to identify the leader they admire most outside their own countries, only 6% identify Nasrallah (in contrast with 2008, when he led with 26%). However, he maintains solid popularity in Jordan (21%). The net winner is Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, who was identified as the most admired leader with 24% of those polled (compared with only 4% in 2008).

They like Obama okay but are more thankful that he's not Bush:

Overall, 45% of Arabs polled have a favorable view of President Obama (50% outside Egypt), 28% are neutral, 24% have negative views. Remarkably, 79% of Saudis have a favorable view of President Obama and only 14% have negative views. Consistently, in all six countries, the negative views of the President are remarkably low.

These favorable views of President Obama, while remarkable in comparison to previous American presidents, do not yet indicate enthusiasm. Those whose opinions of the President are “very positive” are only 11%. When asked in an open question about leaders they admire most in the world, few choose President Obama as one of those leaders.

Views of President Obama appear to be at least in part personal, and not simply a reflection of “thank God it’s not Bush” attitudes. To be sure, President George W. Bush still shows up as the leader of the list of the two most disliked leaders, with 61%. But when asked about attitudes toward Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, more Arabs have negative views of her than positive views. Overall, 45% have negative views, 24% are neutral, and 22% have positive views.

Ben Rhodes Working on Obama's Egypt Speech

Ben Rhodes, Obama’s foreign policy speechwriter, is working on Obama's speech that he will give in Egypt June 4. Here's some insight into that process:

The process for the Cairo address will begin this week in the same way it has for other foreign policy speeches Rhodes has written since the Inauguration: Obama will summon Axelrod; Rhodes; Denis McDonough, a deputy national security adviser; and chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to the Oval Office.

The president will talk off the cuff for a half-hour or so about what he wants to say in the speech. Rhodes calls it the “download.”

Obama will go back to the speech, almost always by hand, three or four times before he’s satisfied.

“His criticism is more, ‘No, what I really wanted to say is this, and you didn’t quite capture that here,’” Rhodes said. “Generally, if he’s not happy with it, he knows why he’s not, so he gives you a pretty clear sense the first time he talks to you.”

The one thing that gets Obama annoyed, Rhodes said, is “wishy-washy language.”
.....

“He was making changes up to the last minute, which is not unusual, and so I literally had to do those in the back of the motorcade to this site and then find a zip drive that could plug into the teleprompter,” Rhodes recalled in an interview. “He likes to work on things until the end because he likes to get them just the way he wants them. So sometimes that’s easy, sometimes it’s you in the back of a van with a laptop on your knee hoping your battery doesn’t die.”

Said senior adviser David Axelrod: “Everybody here sort of lives with the reality that the president is the best speechwriter in the group.” Read more at Politico