Obama has blunt message for Arabs and Jews

US President Barack Obama had a blunt, "tough-love" message for Arabs and Israelis that thrust him deeper into Middle East peacemaking - a tangled web that bedeviled his predecessors and carries risks for him. Quoting a Quran passage to "speak always the truth," Obama set aside diplomatic niceties in a speech in Cairo demanding that Israel stop building Jewish West Bank settlements that antagonize Palestinians, that Palestinians work for peace and accept Israel's right to exist and for Palestinian militants to halt violence.

We cannot impose peace," Obama said in Thursday's speech to the world's Muslims. "But privately, many Muslims recognize that Israel will not go away. Likewise, many Israelis recognize the need for a Palestinian state. It is time for us to act on what everyone knows to be true." His foray into the Middle East comes far earlier in his presidency than that of his predecessors, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, who waited until late in their terms to make a major push and found themselves disappointed at the outcome.