Palestinians: Jerusalem to be our capital

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JERUSALEM, June 4 (UPI) -- Palestinian and Arab news outlets and Web sites Thursday generally praised U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the world's Muslim community in Cairo.

One of the most popular headlines on some of the Palestinian media outlets quoted Obama saying Israel cannot deny Palestine's right to exist.

Al Jazeera, the Arabic television station, proclaimed on its Web site: "Obama seeks a new start."

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, told the Haaretz newspaper that Obama's speech before 3,000 people at the University of Cairo was a good start. "His call for stopping settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of the Palestinians is a clear message to Israel that a just peace is built on the foundations of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," he said.

Iman Taha, a Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said Obama's speech did not signify any real change in U.S. Mideast policy. "Talk of waging a war against extremists and a two state solution for two people is no different to that of former U.S. President George Bush," he told the Maáriv daily newspaper.