immediately after speech, netanyahu called the idea indefensible. but mr. obama had plenty to anger the palestinians, too, calling for a nonmilitarized palestinian state, criticizing the palestinian ownity agreement between fatah and extremist group, hamas, and trying to head off their plans to seek recognition at the u.n. general assembly. >> symbolic actions to isolate israel at the united nations in september won't create an independent state. >> reporter: the reaction was positive but they had a key question. >> what would be the american role in getting mr. netanyahu to accept this? >> reporter: the president's balancing act gave a little to each side but one observer says mr. obama may have been too careful not to stick his neck out. >> i think he didn't want to displease any particular constituency but what that meant was he wasn't going to take a lot of risks and when you're not following take risks on the middle east, you are probably not going to make a lot of news.