Obama pressure on Israel draws concerns in U.S.

Wed Jun 3, 2009 4:53pm EDT

By Susan Cornwell and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - As President Barack Obama courts Muslims in the Middle East, his pressure on Israel to halt Jewish settlement activity in occupied territory is starting to raise some concerns at home.

Some U.S. lawmakers are urging Obama to use caution in pressuring Israel, underscoring the political difficulty facing Obama as he tries to develop a more evenhanded policy toward Israel and the Palestinians.

Israel has strong supporters in the U.S. Congress, where Obama's fellow Democrats hold a majority and where most lawmakers are traditionally protective of the strongest U.S. ally in the Middle East, providing the Jewish state about $2.5 billion a year in aid.

Both political parties are raising doubts about Obama's pressure on Israel even as the president tours the Middle East, where he plans to address the Muslim world in Cairo on Thursday.

Before he left, Obama told National Public Radio that "a freeze on settlements, including natural growth, is part of (Israel's) obligations" -- a message he conveyed directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month.

Referring to Obama's demands for a freeze on settlements in the West Bank, Representative Anthony Weiner said, "I think the president went beyond where I think it was appropriate for us to go in dealing with another democracy."

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Egypt's Coptic Christians Driven to Isolation

CAIRO -- Under pressure from fundamentalist forms of Islam and bursts of sectarian violence, the most populous Christian community in the Middle East is seeking safety by turning inward, cutting day-to-day social ties that have bound Muslim to Christian in Egypt for centuries, members of both communities say.

Attacks this summer on monks and shopkeepers belonging to Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, and scattered clashes between Muslims and Christians, have compelled many of Egypt's estimated 6 million to 8 million Copts to isolate themselves in a nation with more than 70 million Muslims.

To a degree, the separation will stand as the legacy of one of the longest-serving leaders in the church's history, Pope Shenouda III, some Copts say. Shenouda has strengthened the church as the center of daily Coptic life, making it a bulwark for Christians, during a papacy that has spanned 36 years. Now 85, Shenouda is facing health problems, including a broken leg last month that was repaired in the United States.

Across much of Egypt, Muslims and Christians note a drawing apart of their communities, especially in the working class.

Many say they mourn the loss.

Others say the separation is for the best.

"It's natural," Ayad Labid Faleh, a Coptic Christian, said in his auto parts store in the Shobra neighborhood of Cairo. In the dim, oil-slicked shop front, Faleh waited for customers, surrounded by boxed hoses and florid icons.
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