Pool
As an update of his June 2009 Cairo address, President Obama delivered Thursday what was billed as a “major speech” on the Middle East at the State Department. The speech had few new policy points, though. Obama applauded the Arab Spring revolts and blasted oppressive regimes—although the harshest words were reserved for Libya, Syria, and Iran, the president also chastised Bahrain, a key American ally. Holding up Iraq as a model, Obama said the U.S. would work to encourage free markets and economic growth as a path to stability, including forgiving $1 billion in Egyptian debt. But the biggest news was Obama’s statement on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. While stopping short of laying out a process for peace, he said, “The dream of a Jewish and democratic state cannot be fulfilled with permanent occupation.” To achieve that, there must be two states, "based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps,” he said, while shying away from sticky questions of Jerusalem and the refugees’ fate.