Backlash Beginning

Speech concerns some Israel backers

...some pro-Israel Democrats expressed concern about some of his remarks.

In what's become his trademark manner, Obama offered tough words for both Israelis and Palestinians in his address at Cairo University.

Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY)...did concede there was one part of the speech he didn't agree with. “Where I have a problem is when settlements are mentioned alone,” he said, not in direct conjunction with steps Palestinians must take.

Obama’s firm statement on settlements have become a key concern for many American supporters of Israel, and especially those on the right side of American politics.

John Bolton, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under President Bush, seized on Obama's settlement remarks, saying, "When you criticize your strongest ally in an environment like that, it is intended to send a message to that ally.” .

Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), another outspoken supporter of Israel and a potential Senate candidate next year...warned, “The Palestinians and Hamas have humiliated the Western parties that have tried to work with them."

Staunch Israel allies on the Democratic side of the aisle were more laudatory, buffering Obama's domestic position with the Jewish community.

Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY), chairwoman of the State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, praised the trip and the speech..."While compromise will be required on both sides, the Palestinians and Arab states must unequivocally denounce terrorism, recognize Israel, cease anti-Israel incitement at home and within the United Nations, and support viable PA institutions."

Some pro-Israel officials grumbled that Obama wasn’t more forceful in urging Arab states to follow the model of slain Egyptian president Anwar Sadat in recognizing the Jewish state.

Mostly, though, mainstream Israel advocates like AIPAC have held off of public criticism of the new president, and are trying to convince the administration to narrow its demands for a settlement freeze to apply only to settlements on land that is expected ultimately to form part of a Palestinian state.