From Mike Allen's POLITICO Playbook DAVID AXELROD, on the call: 'Obviously this was an extraordinary journey, one in which the President had an opportunity to look back in history at the people who sacrificed and suffered to create the modern world, and to look forward at the responsibilities that we all have in our times to forge a better future. And that was at the essence of his speech in Cairo. His goal was to clear away the debris that stands in between us and the Muslim world in terms of our relationship -- as he said, a cycle of suspicion and of discord that has grown over time and that threatens the future of countries in the region and our own security. And he did it by honestly and directly confronting the issues between us. And the reaction that we've gotten, hundreds of millions of people viewed the speech and the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. ...
'He had an opportunity to reset the relationship between America and the Muslim world and set the conditions for the United States to play a positive role in terms of resolving some of these conflicts, and I think he was really, really happy with the speech, with the reaction to the speech, and with his conversations with leaders in that region and in Europe, who were very encouraging about the speech. Among the reactions he appreciated were a strong statement of support from Shimon Peres in Israel and the statement of the Israeli government. This is an opportunity -- the President believes this is a singular moment in time when we can and we have to seek the initiative in resolving that conflict, and feels we made progress there. Obviously his trip to Buchenwald and to Normandy looked back on some enormously important events in terms of creating the world as we see it now, and taught us important lessons. And I think he was very moved by both those experiences.'
