By Daniel Levy

President Obama almost certainly has emerged from the Cairo speech with new global leverage, accumulating additional capital rather than expending it.

The president's speech literally in one fell swoop will have much of the Muslim world and certainly elites, opinion leaders, and activists scratching their heads and recalibrating their stance toward America. Yes, for everyone the proof of the pudding will be in the eating, what comes next and whether policy changes on specific issues. The immediate effect though is to buy America space and time. It gives those who share an affinity with American values a new lease of life, causes the majority who are not hostile to the US but deeply skeptical of its intentions to reconsider and suspend judgment, and it will induce in America's enemies a splitting headache.

At a most basic level, the president managed to connect. He spoke humbly and touched on buzz words for this audience, discussing dignity, justice and even the legacy of colonialism and hostility. 

It's also about what he didn't say.  The word terror, so baggage-laden after the Bush years as to be unhelpful, was dropped-GWOT: R.I.P.  There was also none of the obsequious genuflection to Egypt's non-democratic leader, Hosni Mubarak.  The Egyptian President's name was not even mentioned. 

This is also a president who can finally talk to Palestinians.  The advocacy of a two-state solution, mentioning of Palestine, or opposition to the settlements was neither new nor remarkable.  What he did was to acknowledge a Palestinian narrative that went beyond economics, governance and security, or statehood as a technical fix.  Instead, Obama spoke a language that actual Palestinians could relate to, recalling the 60-year "pain of dislocation", the "wait in refugee camps", humiliation, occupation, and yes, dignity that will be achieved via statehood.

In Cairo, Obama also began a conversation with political Islam.  By narrowly focusing on al-Qaeda as the enemy and apparently articulating an understanding of the non-al-Qaeda Islamist narratives, the president seemed to extend a tentative but visibly unclenched fist to mainstream political Islam.  Gone was the lumping together of Hamas and al-Qaeda.  The president's message to al-Qaeda (we will defeat you if you threaten us) contrasted with his message to Hamas (whom he addressed directly as having a role in fulfilling Palestinian aspirations and unifying the Palestinian people, albeit without familiar strings attached).  Watching the political Islamist movements respond in the weeks and months ahead will be interesting.  This may have been the first unclenching of some fingers in the U.S.-Hamas fist.

And in his uniquely Obamaesque way, he presented perhaps the most compelling justification and explanation of Israel's rights and its existence ever spoken in an Arab and Muslim capital.  No Israeli has done a better job-he is a true friend.  While the government of Benjamin Netanyahu may be squirming in discomfort at Obama's reasoned and repeated calls for a settlement freeze, the Israeli public will, I think, be reassured and even keen to embrace a vision of a peaceful future that includes normalization with the Arab world.  One imagines, too, that the day is not so far off for an honest, empathetic, and home-truths Obama speech to Israel and the Jewish world. 

The speech was light on specific policy details-but that was not the intention.  There was though a powerful endorsement of a more meaningful democratization and values agenda in contrast to the purple-finger, election-centric simplicity of the Bush administration, and an answer to the whining of the neocon right that the president was selling democracy down the river. 

Obama articulated a broader set of rights and freedoms, including religious pluralism and women's rights, placing them in harmony with, rather than in contrast to, Muslim tradition and values.  There was also a promise to "welcome all elected peaceful governments."

Finally, he was of course addressing Americans and the years of attempted fear-mongering on the right.  Obama affirmed the contribution of Muslims not only to America, but also to the world. 

 For more on President Obama's speech in Cairo, see Daniel Levy's extended analysis ‘10 Comments on Obama in Cairo' at TPMCafe