Obama spoke in Cairo and told the Arab world that the U.S was not going to stop supporting Israel or let up on efforts to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

There were also some criticisms in his speech of Israel and of our own behavior in the past. While DFI-LA prefers that disagreements with Israel be done subtley, we also appreciate that neither the U.S. nor Israel is perfect, but the the strength of democracy.

There were some things that could have been done better, such as tying the existence of Israel to ancient Jewish history more, and calling for international control of Iran's nuclear fuel. A distinction should be made between real natural growth of settlements in parts of the West Bank that are alterations to family homes, as opposed to building 1,100 unit apartment buildings and illegal settlements by the Israeli far-right.

That being said, we appreciate his efforts to make the Muslim world understand that Holocaust denial and beligerent threats to Israel are not tolerable and that the U.S. commitment to Israel is sacrosanct.

This took courage because the Cairo speech was not targeted to us, nor to Hamas, Hezbollah or the government of Iran either. It was geared toward middle class Muslims who admire what America stands for and who may one day support peace with Israel, but also are concerned about their own values as well.

These people voted for Hamas because of Fatah corruption, not Hamas' radical agenda. They were key in turning back the Hezbollah in the recent elections in Lebanon and will make a difference if Iran is to turn back Ahmadinejad from a second term in Iran. They are the lawyers of Pakistan and the shop merchants of Hebron and Jakarta.

Obama is trying to offer a credible counter-message to the Islamic Fundementalist agenda to a group that clearly admires Obama.

Will this campaign work? We don't know, but we know that Obama will remain committed to Israel's security.