WEIMAR, Germany (Press Release)—Following is the White House transcript of comments made at the former Buchenwald Concentration Camp by Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, U.S. President Barack Obama and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel on June 5.

CHANCELLOR MERKEL: (As translated.) Mr. President, ladies and gentlemen. Here in this place a concentration camp was established in 1937. Not far from here lies Weimar, a place where Germans created wonderful works of art, thereby contributing to European culture and civilization. Not far from that place where once artists, poets, and great minds met, terror, violence, and tyranny reigned over this camp.

At the beginning of our joint visit to the Buchenwald memorial the American President and I stood in front of a plaque commemorating all the victims. When you put your hand on the memorial you can feel that it has warmed up -- it is kept at a temperature of 37 degrees, the body temperature of a living human being. This, however, was not a place for living, but a place for dying.

Unimaginable horror, shock -- there are no words to adequately describe what we feel when we look at the suffering inflicted so cruelly upon so many people here and in other concentration and extermination camps under National Socialist terror. I bow my head before the victims.

We, the Germans, are faced with the agonizing question how and why -- how could this happen? How could Germany wreak such havoc in Europe and the world? It is therefore incumbent upon us Germans to show an unshakeable resolve to do everything we can so that something like this never happens again.

On the 25th of January, the presidents of the associations of former inmates at the concentration camps presented their request to the public, and this request closes with the following words: "The last eyewitness appeal to Germany, to all European states, and to the international community to continue preserving and honoring the human gift of remembrance and commemoration into the future. We ask young people to carry on our struggle against Nazi ideology, and for a just, peaceful and tolerant world; a world that has no place for anti-Semitism, racism, xenophobia, and right-wing extremism."

This appeal of the survivors clearly defines the very special responsibility we Germans have to shoulder with regard to our history. And for me, therefore, there are three messages that are important today. First, let me emphasize, we Germans see it as past of our country's raison d'être to keep the everlasting memory alive of the break with civilization that was the Shoah. Only in this way will we be able to shape our future.

I am therefore very grateful that the Buchenwald memorial has always placed great emphasis on the dialogue with younger people, to conversations with eyewitnesses, to documentation, and a broad-based educational program.

Second, it is most important to keep the memory of the great sacrifices alive that had to be made to put an end to the terror of National Socialism and to liberate its victims and to rid all people of its yoke.

This is why I want to say a particular word of gratitude to the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, for visiting this particular memorial. It gives me an opportunity to align yet again that we Germans shall never forget, and we owe the fact that we were given the opportunity after the war to start anew, to enjoy peace and freedom to the resolve, the strenuous efforts, and indeed to a sacrifice made in blood of the United States of America and of all those who stood by your side as allies or fighters in the resistance.

We were able to find our place again as members of the international community through a forward-looking partnership. And this partnership was finally key to enabling us to overcome the painful division of our country in 1989, and the division also of our continent. Today we remember the victims of this place. This includes remembering the victims of the so-called Special Camp 2, a detention camp run by the Soviet military administration from 1945 to 1950. Thousands of people perished due to the inhumane conditions of their detention.

Third, here in Buchenwald I would like to highlight an obligation placed on us Germans as a consequence of our past: to stand up for human rights, to stand up for rule of law, and for democracy. We shall fight against terror, extremism, and anti-Semitism. And in the awareness of our responsibility we shall strive for peace and freedom, together with our friends and partners in the United States and all over the world.

Thank you.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Chancellor Merkel and I have just finished our tour here at Buchenwald. I want to thank Dr. Volkhard Knigge, who gave an outstanding account of what we were witnessing. I am particularly grateful to be accompanied by my friend Elie Wiesel, as well as Mr. Bertrand Herz, both of whom are survivors of this place.

We saw the area known as Little Camp where Elie and Bertrand were sent as boys. In fact, at the place that commemorates this camp, there is a photograph in which we can see a 16-year-old Elie in one of the bunks along with the others. We saw the ovens of the crematorium, the guard towers, the barbed wire fences, the foundations of barracks that once held people in the most unimaginable conditions.

We saw the memorial to all the survivors -- a steel plate, as Chancellor Merkel said, that is heated to 37 degrees Celsius, the temperature of the human body; a reminder -- where people were deemed inhuman because of their differences -- of the mark that we all share.

Now these sights have not lost their horror with the passage of time. As we were walking up, Elie said, "if these trees could talk." And there's a certain irony about the beauty of the landscape and the horror that took place here.

More than half a century later, our grief and our outrage over what happened have not diminished. I will not forget what I've seen here today.

I've known about this place since I was a boy, hearing stories about my great uncle, who was a very young man serving in World War II. He was part of the 89th Infantry Division, the first Americans to reach a concentration camp. They liberated Ohrdruf, one of Buchenwald's sub-camps.

And I told this story, he returned from his service in a state of shock saying little and isolating himself for months on end from family and friends, alone with the painful memories that would not leave his head. And as we see -- as we saw some of the images here, it's understandable that someone who witnessed what had taken place here would be in a state of shock.

My great uncle's commander, General Eisenhower, understood this impulse to silence. He had seen the piles of bodies and starving survivors and deplorable conditions that the American soldiers found when they arrived, and he knew that those who witnessed these things might be too stunned to speak about them or be able -- be unable to find the words to describe them; that they might be rendered mute in the way my great uncle had. And he knew that what had happened here was so unthinkable that after the bodies had been taken away, that perhaps no one would believe it.

And that's why he ordered American troops and Germans from the nearby town to tour the camp. He invited congressmen and journalists to bear witness and ordered photographs and films to be made. And he insisted on viewing every corner of these camps so that -- and I quote -- he could "be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever in the future there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda."

We are here today because we know this work is not yet finished. To this day, there are those who insist that the Holocaust never happened -- a denial of fact and truth that is baseless and ignorant and hateful. This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts; a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history.

These individuals never could have known the world would one day speak of this place. They could not have known that some of them would live to have children and

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BUCHENWALD TRIBUTE--U.S. President Barack Obama puts a flower besides the crematoria at Buchenwald Concentration Camp. Behind him, carrying flowers are German Chanceloor Angela Merkel and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel. White House photo by Pete Souza

grandchildren who would grow up hearing their stories and would return here so many years later to find a museum and memorials and the clock tower set permanently to 3:15, the moment of liberation.

Also to this day, there are those who perpetuate every form of intolerance -- racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, xenophobia, sexism, and more -- hatred that degrades its victims and diminishes us all. In this century, we've seen genocide. We've seen mass graves and the ashes of villages burned to the ground; children used as soldiers and rape used as a weapon of war. This places teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time, that we must reject the false comfort that others' suffering is not our problem and commit ourselves to resisting those who would subjugate others to serve their own interests.

But as we reflect today on the human capacity for evil and our shared obligation to defy it, we're also reminded of the human capacity for good. For amidst the countless acts of cruelty that took place here, we know that there were many acts of courage and kindness, as well. The Jews who insisted on fasting on Yom Kippur. The camp cook who hid potatoes in the lining of his prison uniform and distributed them to his fellow inmates, risking his own life to help save theirs. The prisoners who organized a special effort to protect the children here, sheltering them from work and giving them extra food. They set up secret classrooms, some of the inmates, and taught history and math and urged the children to think about their future professions. And we were just hearing about the resistance that formed and the irony that the base for the resistance was in the latrine areas because the guards found it so offensive that they wouldn't go there. And so out of the filth, that became a space in which small freedoms could thrive.

When the American GIs arrived they were astonished to find more than 900 children still alive, and the youngest was just three years old. And I'm told that a couple of the prisoners even wrote a Buchenwald song that many here sang. Among the lyrics were these: "...whatever our fate, we will say yes to life, for the day will come when we are free...in our blood we carry the will to live and in our hearts, in our hearts -- faith."

They could not have known how the nation of Israel would rise out of the destruction of the Holocaust and the strong, enduring bonds between that great nation and my own. And they could not have known that one day an American President would visit this place and speak of them and that he would do so standing side by side with the German Chancellor in a Germany that is now a vibrant democracy and a valued American ally.

They could not have known these things. But still surrounded by death they willed themselves to hold fast to life. In their hearts they still had faith that evil would not triumph in the end, that while history is unknowable it arches towards progress, and that the world would one day remember them. And it is now up to us, the living, in our work, wherever we are, to resist injustice and intolerance and indifference in whatever forms they may take, and ensure that those who were lost here did not go in vain. It is up to us to redeem that faith. It is up to us to bear witness; to ensure that the world continues to note what happened here; to remember all those who survived and all those who perished, and to remember them not just as victims, but also as individuals who hoped and loved and dreamed just like us.

And just as we identify with the victims, it's also important for us I think to remember that the perpetrators of such evil were human, as well, and that we have to guard against cruelty in ourselves. And I want to express particular thanks to Chancellor Merkel and the German people, because it's not easy to look into the past in this way and acknowledge it and make something of it, make a determination that they will stand guard against acts like this happening again.

Rather than have me end with my remarks I thought it was appropriate to have Elie Wiesel provide some reflection and some thought as he returns here so many years later to the place where his father died.

MR. WIESEL: Mr. President, Chancellor Merkel, Bertrand, ladies and gentlemen. As I came here today it was actually a way of coming and visit my father's grave -- but he had no grave. His grave is somewhere in the sky. This has become in those years the largest cemetery of the Jewish people.

The day he died was one of the darkest in my life. He became sick, weak, and I was there. I was there when he suffered. I was there when he asked for help, for water. I was there to receive his last words. But I was not there when he called for me, although we were in the same block; he on the upper bed and I on the lower bed. He called my name, and I was too afraid to move. All of us were. And then he died. I was there, but I was not there.

And I thought one day I will come back and speak to him, and tell him of the world that has become mine. I speak to him of times in which memory has become a sacred duty of all people of good will -- in America, where I live, or in Europe or in Germany, where you, Chancellor Merkel, are a leader with great courage and moral aspirations.

What can I tell him that the world has learned? I am not so sure. Mr. President, we have such high hopes for you because you, with your moral vision of history, will be able and compelled to change this world into a better place, where people will stop waging war -- every war is absurd and meaningless; where people will stop hating one another; where people will hate the otherness of the other rather than respect it.

But the world hasn't learned. When I was liberated in 1945, April 11, by the American army, somehow many of us were convinced that at least one lesson will have been learned -- that never again will there be war; that hatred is not an option, that racism is stupid; and the will to conquer other people's minds or territories or aspirations, that will is meaningless.

I was so hopeful. Paradoxically, I was so hopeful then. Many of us were, although we had the right to give up on humanity, to give up on culture, to give up on education, to give up on the possibility of living one's life with dignity in a world that has no place for dignity.

We rejected that possibility and we said, no, we must continue believing in a future, because the world has learned. But again, the world hasn't. Had the world learned, there would have been no Cambodia and no Rwanda and no Darfur and no Bosnia.

Will the world ever learn? I think that is why Buchenwald is so important -- as important, of course, but differently as Auschwitz. It's important because here the large -- the big camp was a kind of international community. People came there from all horizons -- political, economic, culture. The first globalization essay, experiment, were made in Buchenwald. And all that was meant to diminish the humanity of human beings.

You spoke of humanity, Mr. President. Though unto us, in those times, it was human to be inhuman. And now the world has learned, I hope. And of course this hope includes so many of what now would be your vision for the future, Mr. President. A sense of security for Israel, a sense of security for its neighbors, to bring peace in that place. The time must come. It's enough -- enough to go to cemeteries, enough to weep for oceans. It's enough. There must come a moment -- a moment of bringing people together.

And therefore we say anyone who comes here should go back with that resolution. Memory must bring people together rather than set them apart. Memories here not to sow anger in our hearts, but on the contrary, a sense of solidarity that all those who need us. What else can we do except invoke that memory so that people everywhere who say the 21st century is a century of new beginnings, filled with promise and infinite hope, and at times profound gratitude to all those who believe in our task, which is to improve the human condition.

A great man, Camus, wrote at the end of his marvelous novel, The Plague: "After all," he said, "after the tragedy, never the rest...there is more in the human being to celebrate than to denigrate." Even that can be found as truth -- painful as it is -- in Buchenwald.

Thank you, Mr. President, for allowing me to come back to my father's grave, which is still in my heart.

Preceding transcript provided by the White House

CAIRO, Egypt (Press Release)—Here is the transcript of President Obama's news conference in Cairo following his speech to the Muslim world on June 4. To read the speech itself, which we ran in the previous edition, please click here.

THE PRESIDENT:  So I know that we only have half an hour and I want to make sure that everybody has time for questions.  So I'm not going to make an opening statement -- I just made a long one in the auditorium, and I'll just open it up and maybe if you want we'll just go around the room.  Is that okay?  And we'll start with you, Wafa.

Q  Well, thank you for your speech.  I'm sure that the Palestinians are overwhelmed by some of the things that you have said regarding the Palestinian issue, specifically about the settlements.  We have not heard a U.S. President, or any U.S. official before, saying the United States does not recognize the legitimacy of settlements.

However, the Palestinians want to see -- want you to show them how different you are from other Presidents.  Are there measures that the United States will take in order to ensure that settlement expansion is --

(Interruption to interview.)

THE PRESIDENT:  I think you pressed play instead of record -- you're getting somebody's interview on that.

Q  I'm so sorry.

THE PRESIDENT:  No, no, no.  Go ahead.

Q  Anyway, so if the Israelis do not stop the settlements as specified in phase one of the road map, are there measures that you plan to take in order to enforce that?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I think it's premature for me to go beyond the principles that I've laid out in the speech.  And let me explain why.  Prime Minister Netanyahu has only been in office now for a month, month-and-a-half.  President Abbas I just met with two weeks ago.  I'm still in the process of consulting with Arab states throughout the region.

And so I think it's very important for all the parties to listen, to take measure of what they can do, how far they're willing to go, before I make any reactions or pre-judge what direction the negotiations should go in.

The one thing I know is this:  This is a difficult issue across the board.  I don't think we should underestimate the difficulties; passions are very high on both sides; the politics are very difficult on both sides.  But one of the things that I committed to during my campaign was that I would not wait until my sixth or seventh or eighth year in office -- or, if I only get four, my third or fourth year in office, but that I was going to start right away.  And I think that's what's required, is serious, long-term U.S. engagement.

I've assigned a special envoy, George Mitchell, who is traveling back and forth between all the various interested parties.  And we've set out some clear parameters in terms of how we are going to approach the problem.  And my hope and expectation is that there is going to be some difficulties; but ultimately both the Israelis and Palestinians are going to recognize this is in their interests.

That's the main thing that I wanted to emphasize in the speech:  The United States cannot impose a solution; but perhaps because we're not immediately in the heat of the passions involved, perhaps we can see why it's so important for both Israelis and Palestinians to resolve this and resolve this soon, and not continue to let it fester.  And that's what I'm committed to.

Q  Is there a timeline or time frame for U.S. --

THE PRESIDENT:  I don't want to impose an artificial timeline, but I think that all of us probably had a sense in our gut of, "Are things moving forward?" or "Have they stalled?"  There's historically been a rhythm to negotiations in the region.  And when things stall, everybody knows it.  People may say a lot of words, but everybody knows that nothing is happening.  Right now things have been stalled for quite some time.  When things are moving, people also know that.

And so what I want to -- I want to have a sense of movement and progress.  And I think that can be achieved.

Okay.  Magdy -- and I'll listen to my translation.

Q  (As translated.)  I think your speech was wonderful and more -- above and beyond everybody was expecting.  And you have talked about the Middle East and the future of this region.  You also spoke about the commitment of the United States towards achieving progress towards special issues.  I also believe there are some difficulties.  I might want to be much more precise.

I have one question:  How is your administration going to deal with the current Israeli government and with Hamas as a part and parcel of the Palestinian portfolio?  And I think so many believe that Hamas is a difficult question that the previous administration did not deal with.  What is your vision and your view in dealing with Hamas and dealing with the hawks in the current Israeli government?

The other issue is your clarity and your vision makes me want to ask you, who are your partners in the region that you can rely on to achieve your objectives -- either on the Palestinian issue or the Iraqi issue or the Afghanistan issue?  Thank you, sir.

THE PRESIDENT:  First of all, I tried to make clear in my speech that when it comes to Hamas, there is no doubt that Hamas has some support among Palestinians -- that was shown in the last election; that cannot be denied.  What I also said is that Hamas has responsibilities to those people it represents to have a responsible approach to actually delivering a Palestinian state.

If Hamas's approach is based on the idea that Israel will cease to exist, that's an illusion.  And what that means is that they are more interested in talk than in results.  If they are serious about delivering a Palestinian state, then they should renounce violence, accept the framework provided by the previous agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist.  That still leaves enormous room for them to negotiate on a whole host of issues.

But at minimum they can't provide the results for the people they claim to represent if they're not acknowledging reality.  So, you know, this is really a decision for Hamas to make.

Now, with respect to the Israeli government, I've had three meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu.  The first two was while I was a United States senator, and one in the White House just recently.  In each case I found him to be a very intelligent, very engaging person, a excellent communicator.  And I think because this is the second time that he's serving as Prime Minister, I think he feels a very real historic sense about the task before him.

Obviously it was a very close election in Israel.  It took some time to put that coalition together.  That means that politics are complicated.  And I think that just as so many Palestinians have lost confidence and faith that the process can move forward, I think there are a lot of Israelis who have lost confidence and faith that they will ever be recognized by Arab states, or that there will be security that is meaningful -- where rockets aren't fired into Israel.

And so I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu will recognize the strategic need to deal with this issue.  And that in some ways he may have an opportunity that a labor or more left leader might not have.  There's the famous example of Richard Nixon going to China.  A Democrat couldn't have gone to China.  A liberal couldn't have gone to China.  But a big, anti-communist like Richard Nixon could open that door.

Now, it's conceivable that Prime Minister Netanyahu can play that same role.  But it's going to be difficult -- and I don't want to diminish the difficulties for any of the parties involved in making these decisions because, as I said, there are a lot of passions in the people.  But part of leadership is being able to push beyond immediate politics to get to where, ultimately, the people need to go.

And in terms of partners more broadly, my attitude at this point is I want to work with everybody I can to get things done.

Nahum.

Q  First of all, Mr. President, I want to congratulate you for a great speech.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

Q  I believe that everybody in the region listened to it, including in my country.

One question which really worries the Israelis is Iran.  In your speech you didn't indicate whether at certain point you -- or whether -- to stop the nuclearization of Iran is an American national goal which has to be fulfilled.

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, keep in mind that I've been very clear on this in the past, and I will continue to be clear on the fact that an Iranian nuclear weapon would be profoundly destabilizing for the entire region.  It is strongly in America's interest to prevent such a scenario.

But I believe it's in the interest of everybody in the region -- indeed, I actually think it's in Iran's interest to prevent such a scenario, because it would be a very dangerous place if everybody decides that they need to have a nuclear weapon in the neighborhood, particularly given the conflicts that exist not just between -- the tensions between Israel and Iran, but there are a wide set of conflicts that would be affected.

So my approach, as I've said, is to reach out to Iran to suggest talks without preconditions, but also to -- and as I said in my speech, to have a wide range of issues to discuss.  But the issue that is time-sensitive, where we have to make progress because we are reaching a critical point, is on the issue of nuclear weapons.  And so one of the things that I want to do is to put this in a broader context.  I want this not just to be an American effort, or an Israeli concern, but I think it's an international concern.  And as committed as I am to diplomacy, as I said in the White House just a few weeks ago, I'm not just going to talk just for talking sake.  If I don't see meaningful progress in these talks, then that will indicate to me that the Islamic Republic is not serious.

Q  If I may --

THE PRESIDENT:  Please.

Q  Sorry.  You didn't mention the word "normalization" between Israel and the Arab world in your speech.  Is it -- does it indicate something? 

THE PRESIDENT:  It doesn't indicate anything.  I think the working assumption -- and that's why I added the issue of Arab state responsibilities, not just Israeli and Palestinian responsibilities.  I added that paragraph because I thought it was very important to reinforce the notion that the region as a whole has to take responsibility for solving this issue.  And I think from Israel's perspective, the importance of knowing that as a consequence of making the necessary compromises to achieve a two-state solution they are not only making peace and doing what is just with respect to the Palestinians, but that they are also securing -- that they are also meeting their own security needs, and broader threats that might come from beyond Gaza or the West Bank -- that's a very important element.

It also, by the way, would allow I think the entire region to prosper much more effectively.  If you think about the possibilities of commerce and trade in the Middle East if a country like Israel, as powerful as it is, were able to have normalized commercial relations with Gulf states, with a Palestinian state that is full of talent, and you suddenly have all the Palestinian diaspora coming back and investing, and businesspeople throughout the region, you could see huge economic benefits, as well as security benefits.

But we're very far from that vision, so right now I just want us to start taking that step down the road.  You know, there's the well-known saying that the hardest step on any journey is always the first one.

Yes.

Q  Thank you, President Obama.  Of course, as an Indonesian, my first question would be when will you come to Indonesia?

THE PRESIDENT:  Oh, I need to come to Indonesia soon.  I expect to be traveling to Asia at some point within the next year and I would be surprised if when I came to Asia I did not stop by my old home town of Jakarta.  And I'll go visit Menteng Dalam and have some bakso -- nasi goreng.  These are some special dishes here that I used to eat when I was a kid.

Q  Actually I live only 300 meters from your old house.

THE PRESIDENT:  Is that right?

Q  Yes, Menteng Dalam.

THE PRESIDENT:  Except now it's all paved. 

Q  Yes, it's all paved.

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, see, when I was there it was all dirt,
so when the rains came it would all be mud.  And all the cars would get stuck.

Q  And your school is much better now.

THE PRESIDENT:  It's nicer now, yes.  (Laughter.)  Okay.

Q  That would be November, APEC maybe?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I don't want to make any -- (laughter) -- firm commitments.

Q  Okay.  And the second is, you know, I read your book, "The Audacity of Hope," and I had a very great hope that you can reach the Muslim community because it seemed to me your understanding of a relationship between faith and politics, especially in black churches is very much -- I can imagine someone who is a Hamas or, you know, maybe radical Islamist would probably, if you take away the word "Islam" and change it with, you know, "black Christian," it's exactly the same.  Do you feel that way also?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, you know, I think it's interesting -- obviously I'm a person of faith, and as a Christian, but also as somebody who believes very strongly in democracy and human rights and I'm a constitutional law professor, so I have some very strong ideas about how a pluralistic society lives together -- these are things that I do spend time thinking about.

What I tried to communicate in the speech and what I believe very strongly is that in an interdependent world like ours, where the world has shrunk and different peoples with different faiths and different ideas are constantly having to coexist, that we have to have a mature faith that says "I believe with all my heart and all my soul in what I believe, but I respect the fact that somebody else believes their beliefs just as strongly."  And so the only way that we are going to live together, or operate in a political system that can work for everybody is if we have certain rules about how we relate to each other.

I can't force my religion on you.  I can't try to organize a majority to discriminate against you because you're a religious minority.  I can't simply take what's in my religious beliefs and say you have to believe and abide by these same things.  Now, that doesn't mean that I can't make arguments that are based on my belief and my faith -- right?  If I'm a Christian, I believe in the Ten Commandments.  And it says, Thou Shalt Not Kill.  If I'm a politician and I say I'm going to pass a law against murdering somebody, that's not me practicing my religious

faith; that's me practicing morality that may be based in religious faith, but that's a universal principle -- or at least one that can translate into a principle that people of various faiths can agree on.

I think it's very important for Islam to wrestle with these issues.  Now, I recognize that not all religious beliefs are going to be exactly the same in how they think about politics.  And so in Islam there's a debate about sharia and how strict an interpretation or how moderate an interpretation of that should be; or should that be something that is not part of the secular law.  I don't presume to make that decision for any country or any groups of people.  But I do think that if you start having rules that guarantee other faiths and other groups, or in the case of the United States, people with no faith at all, are somehow forced to abide by somebody else's faith, I think that is a violation of the spirit of democracy and I think that over the long term, that's going to breed conflict in some way.  It will lead to some sort of instability and destructiveness in that society.

But, as I said, I think this is a important debate that has to take place inside Islam.  I think in the meantime, the one thing I can say for certain is that people who justify killing other people based on faith are misreading their sacred texts.  And I think they are out of alignment with God.  Now, that's my belief.  And that, I think, is a debate that I think is settled for the vast majority of Muslims, but we have a very small minority that can be very destructive, and that's part of what I tried to discuss in my speech.

Q  Mr. President, why have you chosen -- why did you choose Cairo as the venue for the speech?  Because the Arab population, after all, make up only about 20 percent of the Muslim population, and Indonesia --

THE PRESIDENT:  I should have gone to Kuala Lumpur.  (Laughter.)

Q  Or Indonesia, which is the biggest country.  And also -- I mean, the expectations on you are really, really high doing something to heal the rift.  Do you find that a burden at all?  And what would be your yardstick of success in mending ties in your first year -- first term of office?

THE PRESIDENT:  Okay.  Well, I thought it was important to come to Cairo because I think, if we're honest, the greatest tension when it comes to the relationship between the Muslim world and the United States in recent years has centered around the Middle East.  In some ways, going to Indonesia would almost be cheating -- (laughter) -- because I would have a home court advantage.  Not only am I personally close to the culture and have a sister who's half Indonesian, but I think that, frankly, the relationship between the United States and Indonesia has generally been strong.  It was weakened for a time immediately after the Iraqi invasion, but generally speaking, there have been strong lines of communication.

And so, my tendency is to go to the source of the problem and not try to avoid the problem.  And I think that the source of the problem in this situation has to do with the United States and countries in the Middle East not communicating effectively.

And in terms of expectations, I tried to be very clear that one speech alone does not solve all these problems.  What I wanted to do was simply to start a conversation, not just between me and the Muslim world, but within the Muslim world and within America and the West about how do we finally start being honest about some of these problems.  And that -- once you diagnose a problem, it still may take a long time to actually cure the problem.  But you're never going to cure it unless you diagnose it.  And so what I was trying to do was at least to get us to start thinking about what are the real three, four, five, six things that are at the heart of the argument.  And let's go ahead and look at those directly and see are there ways where we can at least agree to what the nature of the problem is.  That's how we can begin to solve it.

But it's going to take a long time to solve many of these issues, and I don't expect that some of these problems will ever go away completely.

Q  Mr. President, first, thank you for your excellent speech.

THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you.

Q  Second, I would like to ask you a question about American policy.  I go often to the United States in my work, and I meet a lot of people.  And my last trip -- and it was after your inauguration, a few weeks -- you met with the key members of your party in the Congress at that time.  And we read in the papers that what you did is you convinced them of your approach to the peace in the Middle East.  And everybody was -- then the expectation rose in the Arab world and in the Muslim world.

When they saw Mr. Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, "refusing" a two-state solution, "refusing" the freeze of the settlements, and the not talking about this issue, and then when we saw this letter of 300 members of the Congress, some of the Arabs thought that maybe it was AIPAC again, which is trying to influence the Congress.  So my question is, do you feel that, as an administration, can you pressure Mr. Netanyahu, if need be, domestically and can you -- do you think that also Mr. Netanyahu can endanger the historic alliance and relation between his country and the United States?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, I tried to make very clear in the speech, the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable.  It transcends party; it will be there if there's a Democratic President or a Republican President, if there is a Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress.  The ties are just very deep.  They're cultural, they're historic, they're familial.  I mean, I think Nahum would be the first one to acknowledge, I don't know what number of American-born Jews are now Israeli citizens, but it's a pretty high number.  There's constant -- I mean, there's constant flow back and forth.  So there's just -- they're very close ties.

So expecting a break between the United States and Israel is I think not something that people should anticipate.

I think that -- the second thing I want to emphasize is, it's only been four months -- five months.  Netanyahu has only been in office, what is it, a month and a half?  I mean, since the government formed.  I mean, he was elected April 1st.  So, two months.  We've been waiting 60 years.  So we maybe might just want to try a few more months before everybody starts looking at doomsday scenarios.

This is difficult, and it's going to take some time.  Now, it's going to take time for Palestinian leadership.  We just discussed the issue of how Palestinians unify around some core principles that could facilitate talks from going forward.  That's not an easy task.  There are some very deep-seated arguments between Hamas and Abbas and Fatah.  And I think we would be naive to think that somehow overnight those problems are going to be solved.

If Hamas wants to participate, it's going to have its own political problems internal to Hamas, because there are some who will never agree to recognizing Israel, in part because they would prefer being in the role that they're in now, which is in opposition and obtaining financing and support and living in Damascus and doing what they do to governing.  And I think that's going to have to be tested.  They're going to have to make some decisions.  That's going to be difficult.

For Israel, these are also difficult decisions.  I believe that, as I said in the speech, these settlements are an impediment to peace.  But that's not to deny the fact that there are people who are already living in some of these settlements; that there is a momentum to some of these settlements.  Turning back those settlements involves very tough choices. 

So all these things are going to take time.  But this is why I say America can't -- we cannot do this for the parties.  I mean, I do think that sometimes there is a schizophrenic view in the Middle East of America.  On the one hand, everybody wants America to stop meddling, don't interfere, don't be imperialist.  And then, on the other hand, when is America going to solve the Palestinian crisis?  Why haven't they done this?  Why haven't they created democracy and human rights in -- throughout the Muslim world?  Well, you can't have it both ways, right?  We can't, on the one hand, be the respectful partner who's listening to other countries, and on the other hand you expect us to solve every problem, and nobody else makes an effort.  And part of what I've tried to do today is to instead say, we will be a partner, we will work with you, but everybody is going to have to carry their own weight on this thing.

Q  Are the Arabs who are now the allies of the United States of America, are they ready to be real partners?  Because in the past, some of them were not partners, real partners, especially --

THE PRESIDENT:  Give me an example.

Q  For example, in the time of Yasser Arafat and the meetings between President Clinton, I think, and Mr. Arafat and maybe Mr. Barak.  Most of the Americans I met said, well, it was Arafat who backed off, although some people say, no, this is not the story -- but this is what I heard.  And when I asked some of my friends in the States, they said, well, the Arabs, which means at that time Saudi Arabia and Egypt, who were the allies of Yasser Arafat and allies of the United States, did not force him or did not try to convince him just to accept what was the parameter of solution, which was at that time offered and I don't think described something better.

THE PRESIDENT:  Let me just say this.  One of the things I've learned about being President is I always read about things that I don't remember happening, even though I was in the room -- probably because they didn't happen.  So I don't try to guess or speculate on what happened a decade ago with respect to why a peace deal was not completed.  What's more important from my perspective is how do we now move forward.

And I think that all the parties involved are going to have to seize this moment.  And it's going to require some risks.  And part of the reason that I tried to emphasize this in a public speech is leaders have to have followers and it's important for the publics in Muslim communities to be supportive of the efforts of Arab states to solve this problem and ultimately help to create a two-state solution and better -- or normalized relations with Israel; just as it's important for the Israeli population to provide space for their leadership to make difficult decisions; and it's important for the Palestinian people to provide an atmosphere in which the Palestinian leadership can make difficult decisions.

You know, politicians, they lead but ultimately they can't be so far ahead of their people that those bonds between the leader and the people are ruptured.  And so if we're going to be serious about this, then the people have to at least try to keep pace with what I hope will be leadership across the board.

Jamal, last question.

Q  All right, Mr. President.  In your speech, you made a reference to the conflicts which are poisoning the relations between the Muslim world and the West, and America in particular.  You just came from a partner country, a strategic partner, Saudi Arabia.  In your effort to resolve conflicts in Iraq, in Afghanistan -- maybe you have noticed that Saudi Arabia keep its distance with the previous administration from those two countries.  Did you develop any plans with King Abdullah, who will share the same views as you so you would work together, in your work in Iraq and Pakistan and Afghanistan?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, I certainly discussed these issues with His Majesty.  I try not to disclose the contents of private meetings unless there's been a joint decision that we will discuss them, because I want to always have frank conversations with these leaders.  But I can say this.  Saudi Arabia is obviously absolutely critical to solving a range of problems in the Middle East.  It is an economic leader because of not only its oil wealth but its broad-based development strategies.  It is a thought leader and a religious leader because of Mecca and Medina.

And so if we are talking about Iraq, for example, I think normalizing relations and exchanging ambassadors between Saudi Arabia and Iraq will be helpful to Iraq and its stabilization.  With respect to Pakistan and the situation in Afghanistan/Pakistan, we're seeing a lot of displaced people.  Making sure that there are resources that are put in place so that those displaced persons don't experience enormous suffering, but also so that you don't have further radicalization of an entire population that has been uprooted because of conflict, Saudi Arabia is going to be critical.

So on all these issues, I think Saudi leadership is something that is desirable.  I also happen to have what I consider, and I hope he considers as well, a very good and warm relationship with His Majesty.  I think he is a very wise man and he is a very honest man, and I have great respect for him.

Q  A question about the other audience who were not here at the gathering.  You spoke to a very receptive, cheerful -- they declared their love to you, also.  But the radicals, whom we need to address, Osama bin Laden is alive.  They have their influence, they have --

THE PRESIDENT:  Yes, of course, yes, absolutely.

Q -- but they have their influence.  What are you going to do about that?  And a king like King Abdullah and others --

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, al Qaeda we will defeat because they kill innocent people.  And so I hope I've made that very clear.  I am a strong believer in dialogue, but I don't think that any nation should tolerate an international network that is willing to murder men and women and children who have done nothing. 

That can't be the basis for justice.  That can't be the basis for any governing ideology.  I mean, who would live like that -- that I decide somebody lives with a different religion or has a different skin color or looks like somebody that I don't like, and I'm just going to go ahead and target them, deliberately?  That philosophy is bankrupt. And so we will go after them.

Now, that's not easy, obviously.  And part of the reason it's not easy is because they are adept at exploiting the very real tensions that exist that I discussed today.

So my audience is not them.  I don't expect to change their minds, obviously.  My audience is, though, say, the 20-year-old young man in Cairo in maybe one of the poorer sections of Cairo or in Gaza or in Damascus or in Tripoli who is still searching, is still looking for a way.  And my message to that young man or that young woman would be, it is possible for you to be true to your faith, true to your traditions, but instead of destroying you can build.  And if you see injustice, then the way to achieve the changes you seek is not through violence, but is through persuasion.  And if I reach a few of those 20-year-olds or I reach their parents and maybe they have a conversation and debate with those young men and women, then perhaps that can make a difference when somebody tries to recruit that person to join an extremist organization.

Q  Any quick solutions to Gaza?

THE PRESIDENT:  No quick solutions to Gaza, but by the end of this year my country will have invested $900 million, almost a billion dollars, in humanitarian relief in Gaza.  I think it's very important that we find ways to loosen the borders so that more supplies, more medicine, more infrastructure development, can get into Gaza for rebuilding.  I think part of that is the international community working to ensure that the smuggling of weapons that are then fired into Israel are no longer taking place.  That's going to be a difficult task, but it's one that we're going to have to work on, because in the absence of that we're not going to solve it.

Okay, everybody, I have to go see the Pyramids.  (Laughter.)
Transcript provided by the White House