Obama says US bond with Israel 'unbreakable'

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2009

CAIRO (AFP) — US President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the US bond with Israel is "unbreakable," in a much-anticipated speech aimed at healing America's rift with the Islamic world.

"America's strong bonds with Israel are well known," Obama told the world's Muslims in a speech from Cairo University. "This bond is unbreakable."

"It is based upon cultural and historical ties, and the recognition that the aspiration for a Jewish homeland is rooted in a tragic history that cannot be denied," said Obama, who is to head to Germany's Buchenwald concentration camp after Egypt.

He said that denying the Holocaust is "baseless, ignorant, and hateful."

© 2009 AFP