Obama pledges new start with Muslims

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised to improve U.S. ties with the Muslim world in his inauguration address on Tuesday, after tensions that followed the September 11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect," said Obama, who became the first black president of the United States.

Obama, a practicing Christian, spent several years of his childhood in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation. His American mother, Ann Dunham, married Muslim Indonesian Lolo Soetoro after the end of her marriage to Obama's Kenyan father.

"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist," Obama said.

Under President George W. Bush, U.S. relations with Muslim nations have often been fractious, particularly after the September 11 attacks.

Many Muslims were angered by the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the opening of a prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, widely seen as a symbol of human rights abuses of mostly Muslim prisoners carried out in the name of the "war on terrorism."

The Council on American Islamic Relations welcomed Obama's promise on seeking better relations with Muslim nations.

"We hope this encouraging statement, coupled with a change in America's previous policies toward the Muslim world, will help improve our nation's image and promote a safe and prosperous future for all of humanity," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the council.

The first Muslim to be elected to the U.S. Congress, Minnesota Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, said Obama's words were an important signal of goodwill to Muslims in the United States as well as the rest of the world.

"I do believe it could undermine recruiting for al Qaeda," he told Reuters, because "their message depends on trying to demonize the United States as a country that is somehow hostile to Islam and the Muslim world."

Ellison said Obama's outreach would make it hard for al Qaeda to sustain its anti-American message.

Many Muslims are already excited about Obama, he said.

"If you were to go to Damascus, or Cairo, or Jerusalem today, you could find an Obama tee shirt. People are excited about the possibilities for what this means around the globe."

The population of Ellison's district is three or four percent Muslim, he said. Since his election to Congress in 2006, another Muslim has also been voted in: Democrat Andre Carson of Indiana.

About 300 young Muslims from 76 countries signed a letter published in the Washington Post on Tuesday, urging the new president to make policy changes that could improve relations between the Muslim world and the West.

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Patricia Zengerle)

Likud MP admits failure on Zionist military aggression on GAZA

Zionist Likud lawmaker Yisrael Katz admitted the failure of the Zionist military aggression on the Gaza Strip, asserting that Zionist entity did not achieve its goals in the war which resulted in hundreds of casualties in the ranks of its troops.

Katz said that the military operation in Gaza did not succeed after Zionist premier Ehud Olmert announced a unilateral ceasefire, pointing out that Zionist entity neither eliminated the strength of the Palestinian resistance factions, nor reached an agreement to stop arms supplies to Gaza or get Zionist soldier Gilad Shalit released.

The Observer, one of the best-selling newspapers in the UK, said that the war on Gaza inflicted a moral defeat on Zionist entity.

The newspaper considered that the concept which says that security problems can be resolved by the unilateral use of force is only a delusion dominating the mindset of Zionist politicians.

It added that such a way of thinking did not take into account the fact that an all-out war in the densely populated Gaza against the Palestinian resistance would be essentially an attack on the civilian population of Gaza.

The newspaper noted that Zionist entity would insist on saying that it was able to limit the ability of the Palestinian resistance to fire rockets, but the newspaper recalled that the apparent target of Zionist entity's war was the destruction of that capacity completely.

The truth, however, in the eyes of the newspaper is that the popularity of the Palestinian resistance has increased because of the brutality of the Zionist military aggression on Gaza.

For his part, Dr. Abdelsattar Qassem, a professor of political science at the Najah national university in Nablus, said that the battle in Gaza was settled in favor of the Palestinian resistance in terms of its steadfastness after 22 days of Zionist aggression.

Dr. Qassem stressed that the popularity of the Palestinian resistance spearheaded by Hamas doubled among the Palestinian people and in the Arab and Islamic arenas and would gain further momentum at the expense of the PA in Ramallah.

The professor added that Zionist entity failed to break the back of the Palestinian resistance and to achieve any of its stated goals such as changing the situation in Gaza, bringing back the PA and invading the Gaza Strip cities.

He underscored that Zionist entity is aware now that its achievement of military victory is over because it had been already defeated by the Lebanese resistance and now it made the greatest failure when it failed to invade Gaza despite the fact that it is a small stretch of land under siege for years, besides the Palestinian resistance's defense capability in Gaza is not as that owned by the Lebanese resistance.