Al Jazeera's latest leak of hundreds of secret Palestinian negotiating papers is providing the kind of fly-on-the-wall insights to Mideast peace talks that usually only emerge many years later in the autobiographies of politicians and diplomats.

Though some of the initial coverage and spin by Al Jazeera and other organizations has been inaccurate or out of context, the documents themselves offer a treasure trove of detailed information about Palestinians' internal strategy and tactics. Most of the documents were produced by the Palestinian Authority's own attorneys, advisors and negotiators and include transcripts of private strategy sessions and internal talking points. It's a bonanza for Israel, which can get a peek into the Palestinian thought process as recently as last year.

One December 2009 document discusses "Palestinian Messaging and Implementation." Another lays out the legal risks of a premature declaration of statehood. An internal summary of where peace talks last broke down reveals that Palestinians were prepared in 2008 to limit the number of returning refugees to 15,000 a year for 10 years, or 150,000.

President Obama's call Thursday in an address before the U.N. General Assembly for Israel to extend its West Bank construction moratorium got little reaction from the Israeli delegation. That's because they weren't there.

As Obama spoke about the importance of supporting U.S.-brokered peace talks, television cameras panned to empty chairs at Israel's U.N. desk.

Speculation immediately spread across Internet sites and among arm-chair analysts about whether Israel was snubbing Obama and boycotting his speech. Israel has been resisting mounting international pressure to extend the partial moratorium, which is set to expire Sunday. Palestinians have threatened to quit peace talks if construction resumes, though they've also hinted in recent days that they are open to a compromise.

Israeli officials have denied their absence was an intentional slight, saying they were observing the Jewish holiday of Sukkot and had informed the U.S. in advance that they would not be present.

Nevertheless, American officials expressed some disappointment that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to skip the U.N. meeting, sending other Israeli leaders to represent the country. Obama had hoped to use the forum to continue efforts to prevent peace talks from collapsing.

And some of Netanyahu's right-wing colleagues condemned Obama's speech, accusing the U.S. president of "inappropriate interference."

-- Edmund Sanders in Jerusalem

 A group of 150 Islamic scholars, sheiks and imams in Yemen issued a statement today condemning foreign intervention in the nation's affairs, with one leading cleric calling for global jihad if Washington sends forces to battle Al Qaeda.

The statement, distributed on glossy yellow brochures and CDs to taxi drivers and passersby, was designed to remind Yemenis and Muslims worldwide that this Arabian peninsula nation will not be a puppet of the United States, said Sheik Ali al Warafi, a member of Yemen's conservative Islamist party.

Sheik Arif bin Ahmad al Sabri, a member of parliament who read the document aloud to a group of several hundred men and women in a mosque in Yemen’s capital, Sana, called it a crucial step to maintaining freedom and independence in Yemen.

A relatively unknown and soft-spoken politician emerges from a pack of powerful leaders to pose a strong challenge against a sitting president who is one of the most well-known public figures in the world.

Saeb Erakat, chief negotiator for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority:

“This was a very important speech, in which President Obama reinforced the message that ending the occupation and establishing a viable and independent Palestinian state was in the mutual interest of Palestinians, Israelis and indeed the entire world. Progress towards peace hinges on both parties implementing their obligations under existing agreements....

“President Obama also expressed the need to address the daily injustices that Palestinians face. This includes the dislocation, dispossession and insecurity that millions of Palestinian refugees face, the intolerable realities of Israel’s occupation, especially in Gaza, as well as the importance of Jerusalem to all faiths and peoples, including Palestinian Christians and Muslims.”

* * *

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, responding to Obama administration shifts in attitude in a speech before the president:

"On the one hand, in Iraq terrorist agents are supported by you,” he said, in an apparent reference to the Mujahedin Khalq Organization, an Iranian opposition group based in Iraq. “On the other hand, you chant slogans of fighting terrorism. All of these actions have made nations in the region become hateful for them.… If the new president of America wants change of the face, America should change this behavior. Words and talk will not result in change. Muslim nations know that when the American government changes in deeds, they [Muslims] will believe its words."

Read what others thought of President Obama's speech in Cairo today and then tell us what you think.

Danny Dayan, chairman of the Yesha Council, which represents Jewish settlements in the West Bank:

"In Israel, policy has been determined by the outcome of the last elections. And whether the president of the U.S. is Barack or Hussein, time will tell."

"If we let Obama determine our housing policy in Judea and Samaria, he will get used to this and want to determine the fate of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount as well. And this is something we cannot accept."

Ashraf Saeed, Palestinian computer engineer in Gaza City:

Official Israeli response:

"The Government of Israel expresses its hope that this important speech in Cairo will indeed lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Moslem world and Israel.

"We share President Obama's hope that the American effort heralds the beginning of a new era that will bring about an end to the conflict and lead to Arab recognition of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, living in peace and security in the Middle East.

Israel is committed to peace and will make every effort to expand the circle of peace while protecting its interests, especially its national security."

Abu Mohammad, 50, at a wholesale food supply store in Baghdad:

"Yes, our president was speaking and I listened to it. He supported the Palestinian cause and Islam. ... It was a very good speech. If he continues doing that he will be killed by the Israelis and the Americans like what happened with John Kennedy. He will be killed if he keeps saying 'give the Palestinians their rights.' ... When I was watching him, it was like I was watching Saddam. That doesn’t means that I like Saddam, I just like his power, he was strong. The strength of Obama, his powers remind me of Saddam. Everyone was shaking in his presence, all the Arabs were shaking when he was there addressing the world. I was relaxed when I was listening to him."

Muwafaq al-Kateeb, 37, Baghdad cigarette shop owner:

"Despite the positive things mentioned in his speech, the policy of all the American presidents is one, this would never change. All in all, everything mentioned in the speech was just talk, mere words. There was no extremism in Iraq but the Americans brought it to Iraq. I think they sent the extremists to fight here in Iraq. I’m not convinced with the speech. They are just looking out for their [America's] interests and Israel, and they brought these people to work for them (the Iraqi politicians). ... They invaded the country and the result of this invasion was 2 million Iraqis killed so far, [and] now they want to leave! They brought the Mafia to the power."

Heider Sharif, 40, cellphone shop owner in Baghdad:

"He was talking about the unity among all people despite their religions. This is the first initiative of its kind taken by an American president. It is a sign of goodwill to Muslims. He started his visit in Saudi Arabia which has a special status for Muslims and addressed the world from Cairo which has a special cultural status. I hope this marks a good beginning."

Khalid Mehmood, 45, marketing consultant from Islamabad:

“Since he has become president there have been high hopes that he would be good for the Muslim world. But this is just a speech. Now we need to see what he actually is going to do. Time will tell.”

Aneela Riazuddin, 39, news editor at Online News Agency in Islamabad:

“I think the speech was pretty encouraging. He bridged the gap between Christians and Muslims that we feel was created during the Bush era, when the perception was that the whole war on terror was actually against Muslims.”

Adeel Arshad, 23, editor at Online News Agency in Islamabad:

“He should have talked about the drone attacks. Yes, U.S. drone attacks hit al Qaeda and Taliban targets in that part of our country. But they have also killed civilians. So many innocent tribal people have been killed in these drone attacks, and that’s why it should be stopped.”

Photo: Miriam Najel watches President Obama's speech in her home in the West Bank Jewish settlement of Ofra. Credit: Dan Balilty / Associated Press

Anyone who took a walk along the usually busy Cairo streets Thursday might have thought he was in the wrong place. Areas like El-Tahrir Square, Giza and Salah Salem Road were half as full as they normally would be. Was it a Friday? A public holiday? No, it was the day American President Barack Obama was visiting the city to deliver his awaited speech at Cairo University.

In his path across the city, Obama met President Hosni Mubarak at the presidential palace in Heliopolis and visited Sultan Hassan Mosque in old Cairo before addressing the world from Cairo University and taking a brief break at the historical pyramids area, a tour that covers nearly the whole of this normally chaotic metropolis.

The Ministry of the Interior announced Wednesday that a number of road conversions would be part of the security measures accompanying Obama's visit. Some major bus stops were relocated. Private transportation – a primary mode of travel in Cairo – was not allowed to pick up or drop off passengers in certain areas.

The ministry suggested alternate routes that drivers could use during the president's few hours' stay in Cairo, but most people didn't bother with all of that.

The White House website has posted the video of President Obama's speech in Cairo.

In a speech that took almost an hour and gracefully highlighted the major tensions between Muslim countries and the West, President Obama reached out for what he called "a new beginning" with Islamic countries.

And the White House made sure that the speech was widely disseminated -- sent out via text message in four languages, translated into 13 languages, and broadcast on social media sites from Google's Orkut to Facebook, which has 20 million users in Muslim countries. Press Secretary Robert Gibbs called it a "far broader" than any past effort by a White House much touted for its tech savvy, including live streaming at www.whitehouse.gov.

One fascinating aspect of the speech was the president's outreach to young Muslims, urging them to shed the old prejudices of their cultures. "There's so much fear, so much mistrust that has built up over the years," he said. "But if we choose to be bound by the past, we will never move forward.  And I want to particularly say this to young people of every faith, in every country -- you, more than anyone, have the ability to reimagine the world, to remake this world."

Continue reading "White House translates Obama's speech into 13 languages" on Top of the Ticket.

President Obama spoke to the Muslim world today from Cairo University in Egypt. Read what others thought of his speech and then tell us what you think. 

* * *

Faysal Bazzi, 59, is a Shiite Muslim who owns a mini-market near the old Green Line that divided Christian East Beirut from Muslim West Beirut during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war.

"Any American speech to the Muslim and Arab world should consider the Palestinian issue the central issue."   

"The American administration has to understand the hardships we live because of the Israeli occupation, so the three most important things he should have talked about were dictatorships in the region, the Israeli occupation and the Palestinian right to resist."

"We have nothing against the American people, but we are against America because it supports Israel, so we hope Obama will change the future policies of the United States."

"I'm from a village in south Lebanon, and almost everyone has emigrated because Israel destroyed it --  they killed us and destroyed everything. Obama has asked for change -- well, you can't have partial change without comprehensive change, and change in America will have effects abroad."

President Barack Hussein Obama, born to a Muslim father and educated in a Muslim country, won a rousing response in Cairo today with an outreach to a Muslim world that reviled his predecessor George W. Bush.

He won a gasping cheer at the start, greeting a packed audience at Al Ahzar University with words of Arabic: "I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum."

And toward the end of the speech, when someone shouted, "We love you!," Obama replied, "Thank you."

He thrilled them with a recitation of Muslim countries' contributions to world civilization -- algebra, the compass, pens and printing, medical treatment of disease, architecture, poetry, calligraphy, music. He used the speech to teach as well, reminding the Egyptian audience that the first nation to recognize the United States was an Islamic country, Morocco, and that recently, when Keith Ellison became the first Arab-American elected to Congress, he took the oath of office on a Koran that had been in the personal library of founder Thomas Jefferson.

Continue reading, "What Barack Hussein Obama told Muslims" on Top of the Ticket.

I am honored to be in the timeless city of Cairo, and to be hosted by two remarkable institutions. For over a thousand years, Al-Azhar has stood as a beacon of Islamic learning, and for over a century, Cairo University has been a source of Egypt’s advancement. Together, you represent the harmony between tradition and progress. I am grateful for your hospitality, and the hospitality of the people of Egypt. I am also proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from Muslim communities in my country: assalaamu alaykum.

We meet at a time of tension between the United States and Muslims around the world – tension rooted in historical forces that go beyond any current policy debate. The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars. More recently, tension has been fed by colonialism that denied rights and opportunities to many Muslims, and a Cold War in which Muslim-majority countries were too often treated as proxies without regard to their own aspirations. Moreover, the sweeping change brought by modernity and globalization led many Muslims to view the West as hostile to the traditions of Islam.

Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims. The attacks of September 11th, 2001 and the continued efforts of these extremists to engage in violence against civilians has led some in my country to view Islam as inevitably hostile not only to America and Western countries, but also to human rights. This has bred more fear and mistrust.

So long as our relationship is defined by our differences, we will empower those who sow hatred rather than peace, and who promote conflict rather than the cooperation that can help all of our people achieve justice and prosperity. This cycle of suspicion and discord must end.