Obama’s speech to the Muslim world — Melanie Phillips versus Robert Fisk
From diametrically opposed starting points, Melanie Phillips and Robert Fisk — two of Britain’s leading commentators on the Middle East — have offered up sharply contrasting interpretations of Barack Obama’s landmark speech to the Muslim world. Comparing and constrasting the two analyses opens a window into the state of the debate about the Middle East in Britian in particular and Europe in general.
Phillips — far brighter, far sharper and far more profound — speaks for the counter-orthodoxy. Writing in her blog for the Spectator, she gives Obama his due for stressing the “unbreakable bond” between the United States and Israel and for condemning Palestinian violence, Muslim oppression of non-Muslims and women, and Iranian attacks on the United States. She then proceeds to deconstruct his speech in devastating style.
This is a genuine must read. Click on the following link to read the piece:
http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/3670626/obama-in-cairo.thtml
And then compare it with Robert Fisk’s offering in the Independent. Fisk — an emblematic spokesman for the self-hating, Israel-hating West if ever there were one — describes Obama’s speech as “not bad”. In other words, Obama grovelled before Islamist prejudices but not with sufficient obsequiousness.
To read the piece, click here:
