did president obama's message today strike the right tone? today, the president tries to calm the waters. reaction from israel's ambassador to the u.s. michael orr orrin, and then from the chief palestinian representative to the u.s., mayan ar acat. analysis. i'm candy crowley. and this is state of the union. in his speech, president obama addressed the controversy from his thursday's speech. >> that was my reference to the 1967 alliance with mutually agreed swaps that received the lion's share of the attention, including just now. since my position has been misrepresented several times, let me reaffirm what 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps means. by definition, it means that the parties themselves, israelis and palestinians, will negotiate a border that is different than the one that existed on june 4th, 1967. that's what mutually agreed upon swaps means. it is a well-known formula to all who have worked on this issue for a generation. it allowed the parties themselves to account for the changes that have taken place over the last 44 years. [ applause ] it allows the parties themselves to take account of those changes, including the new demographic realities on the ground and the needs of both sides. the ultimate goal is two states for two people. >> joining me now here in washington, former california congresswoman jane harman, now president and ceo at the woodrow wilson center and former national security advisor steven hadley. we want to tell our viewers we will sit down with the u.s. ambassador -- the ambassador from israel to the u.s. as well as the palestinian representative to the u.s. as soon as they touch base with their homes to get the general reaction from their governments there. but we want to start with you all, who know this area and this region and this decades-long, you know, confrontation there. did the president hit the right pitch? >> i think he did. he started out by reaffirming america's commitment to israel's security, basically said it was ironclad, it was unbreakable, talked about iran and set a very high bar that we will prevent iran from having nuclear weapons. and then he talked about opposing efforts to delegitimize israel, and then as your viewers just saw, he clarified some points that were left ambiguous in a speech in i a way that i think gave real reassurance to israel. so i think he framed it up just right. >> and some of that reassuranceereassurance, that last part of the language, taking into account the new demographics, which you could read a couple ways, but that's basically the language from the bush administration, is it not? >> that's right. the new demographic realities is code for the major existing settlement locks on the border between israel and the west bank that israelis understand need to be part of a final state of issue of israel and a final negotiation. secondly, companied with that is the recognition that where you start with the '67 lines, you're not going to end up at the '67 lines. and of course that's what prime minister netanyahu said very clearly. he could not go back to the '67 lines. they were indefensible, they did not take into account these demographic realty, and the president basically said i understand, i'm not asking you to go back to the '67 lines, you, the parties will negotiate a different order. >> and should israel look at this speech in its totality and go, okay? >> i think so. i do think so. i think the controversy over thursday's speech was overblown. i don't think there was as much of a difference as was played in the press and frankly as some on each side claimed there was. and what i like about today was there is a newly confident president obama, maybe this comes after the osama bin laden takedown, but at any rate he was cool in an audience which in some circumstances might have thrown tomatoes at him after thursday but which actually cheered him numerous times. that was set up by lee rosenberg, the president of aipac, and a longtime obama supporter from chicago. but one more point, candy. the facts on the ground have changed, even since the bush administration, they've changed a lot, as president obama's pointing out. there will be probably new governments in many of the neighbors surrounding israel. both turkey and egypt, longtime supporters of israel, are now decidedly cool about israel. iran is as hard line as always and has armed its proxies, as well as hamas surrounding israel, and the final thing is with this youth, as the president said with the enormous increase in populations west of jordan, inside the contours of israel now, this is untenable that israel can remain a jewish state unless something is done to redesign a two-state -- >> that to me, if there was an underlying text to this, it reminded me of the president's campaign in his constant repetition of martin luther king, the fierce urgency of now. he almost said this is the same policy that we have talked about in private, sometimes in public, but the game has completely changed, and the message seems to be israel, if you do not act now, you will be further isolated, that the game is changing in a way that it will isolate you. did you get that from it? >> he's very concerned about that. and he said that one of the things that has changed is this effort to delegitimize israel, a frustration that the negotiations which seem to have been under way for two decades, have not led anywhere, and that that is what is causing the international community to turn to forums like the united nations. he said the point, the status quo is unsustainable. we need to show that negotiations can work. he did two other things. he said that it is not just israel that needs to do something. he called for the palestinians to take some action, and he called for the countries in the region to take some action. and the second thing he did is he changed the subject. we're talking now not about the issue of settlement freeze. we're talking about the terms for peace. that was very important to do, to turn the corner on this settlement freeze debate, which really has not been a productive vehicle for advancing -- >> and i would add a couple of other things. he made it absolutely clear that the u.s. will never support these efforts to delegitimize israel. he listed opposing them in the past and beat up at the u.n., but he said we will not change. but then he urged israel to be for forward leaning, quoted theal mud, and i think bibi netanyahu has an opportunity to broaden his coalition. i would think the party in the center might join him if he welcomed them back in and that would make up for any defections on the right. this is a huge opportunity, as president obama said, both for him and for president abbas of palestine, to move forward and drop some of the old baggage. >> and in this speech, did we hear anything that if you or palestinian -- obviously that means different things to different people, certainly in terms of hamas and fatah, but did you hear something that you thought, this is good that he said that? >> well, i think the speech that he gave on thursday was in some sense weighted towards the palestinian side. and i think what he did today was correct the balance a little bit and answer some of the concerns that israelis have. but, you know, the palestinians have to show that they're in a position of being able to accept a settlement proposal, you know, a peace proposal was made to arafat, it was made to president abbas. they've had two. they've rejected them both. so the burden on the palestinians is to show that actually they are prepared to sit down and at some point negotiate the peace. >> i'm going to stop you two here. you're coming up later in the show. up next, we want to get reaction from the plo's chief palestinian representative to the united states. we are back. fortunately, i was able to get jane harman and steven hadley to sit back down again as we await reaction from the palestinian and the israeli side. so, first of all, with the speech in general and back to that kind of fierce urgency, it was always my feeling that when all of this, the arab spring started, that there were two factions in israel, those who said we're going to make peace we have to do it now, because before everything changes. and others who say we can't make peace with palestinians because we don't know what the horizon's going to look like. what wins there? the president, by the way, is on the side of now. >> yeah. well, i'm on side of now, too. and i think the moral interests of the u.s. are on the side of now in terms of this whole change landscape. think about it. if everywhere else in the middle east the voices of the public are rising up in these new democratically societies emerging, we hope. i mean, there is a fear they could be sbol ranlt and there are crackdowns on rehi jous minorities all around, which is a bad thing. but if the voice of the people will really be paramount, it is important that if israel wants to be a jewish state, that israel help make the hard choices to draw the right lines, mutually agreed lines, and settle the other sh shoes, which are even more continentious tha the lines, the future of jerusalem and the so-called right of return, which the president sutted, in my view wisely, be put as stage two of the permanent negotiations. i think that's smart. but i'm strongly in favor of that. i would just want to disagree once with my friend stephen hadley. he used the word "balance." he said that the president's speech on thursday was perhaps too far in the palestinian direction and it needed to be rebalanced today for aipac. i thought that the president's speech on thursday was a very good speech and the word "balance" kind of makes me break out in hives. he addressed both sides of this, and he also addressed the broader context. and he said very clearly that the u.s. will be on the right side of history as these governments change, and i applaud him for doing that and sticking to his guns. >> i think it is a good speech. i think it is a balanced approach. i think the real problem is going forward. one, can we avoid violence from breaking out in the west bank. and that means having a prospect for negotiations and also continuing the progress on the ground that prime minister ayad has been doing to show the palestinians that a peaceful, democratic, secure state can emerge. then we've got to see of the politics in the palestinian/israeli side, because the problem is the politics in both communities is not yet conducive to getting them back to the table. then we've got to get past this september event at the u.n. can we use it to -- >> at the u.n. when we put the palestinians to ask the u.n. to declare them -- >> right. >> -- safe. >> that approach is going to make peace harder. can we somehow, through diplomacy, change september so it actually makes it more possible to have negotiations? and then the problem after that, of course, is is prospect of palestinian elections in may and uncertainties about israeli politics. so in some sense, the problem is not the terms of the peace. the president talked about that. a lot of that is known. the problem is how to get from here to there into a negotiation. and it does not look really -- >> that's what i was going to ask. i mean, for all of this renewed focus since thursday on the middle east peace process, it has been moribund for, you know, several-years. >> that's right. >> let's face it. has the president been active enough? everyone i talks to says if this is going to get done, he has to be out there and push and push and push. he knows full well at home he has to be on jobs. has me been active enough? >> i would say no. but i think with this speech and with saying today very clearly that this is a very high priority for him, he will become more active. my suggestion, steve, is if we don't want this vote in september, let's hope and help the parties to move before september to jump-start these negotiations and focus on some real progress, which i think will change the dynamic at the u.n. in september. i mean, why recognize a state and do something in a very polarizing way when negotiations restarted? one other thing we haven't put on the table, candy, and that is hamas. the president was clear today, i thought he was clear thursday, too, that hamas must renounce violence and agree to recognize israel as a jewish state if it's going to be dealt with as part of the new palestinian government. and that hasn't happened. and that is something that president abbas needs to help deliver since he was the guy who decided he was going to broaden his coalition. >> let me ask you to -- we want to pick up on several of those points. we want to take a quick break here. more coverage of the president's middle east speech ahead, and we believe we will have the palestinian representative. and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. had a tree that bore the most rare and magical fruit, which provided for their every financial need. [ thunder rumbling ] [ thunder crashing ] and then, in one blinding blink of an eye, their tree had given its last. but with their raymond james financial advisor, they had prepared for even the unthinkable. ♪ and they danced. see what a raymond james advisor can do for you. welcome back to "state of the union." we're discussing the president's speech this morning to aipac, the american-israel public affairs committee. we will have on, i am told, the palestinian representative to the u.s., who will be here to react. we've had some back and forth as you might have noticed. we also expect to have the israeli -- used to expect to have the israeli ambassador. he's trying to talk to people back home so he's since left. but we are working this all out. thank you for still being here, stephen hadley and jane harman, to me this says it all because everything is so difficult. >> i agree. we were chatting with ambassador orrin in the green room before the show, and he reminded me that not only is the prime minister speaking to aipac tomorrow night, so he will have an opportunity to expand on this, but he's also delivering an address to the joint session of congress on tuesday where it was predicted that he will offer some big ideas. and i'm very excited to hear that. i think he's an enormously capable man and capable of big thoughts, and ambassador or rinn represents him very well in this capital. but my point is that there season time to waste, that now is -- that the urgency of now is now, and that this is the time for israel and palestine to put their best case out not of prior grievances but of future vision for shared geography. >> let me ask you, this -- i think you agree this may be the time, as well, but do you think prime minister netanyahu is the man? he is the man and he is the prime minister of israel, and he is the person we can, should, and will be dealing with. but i think it shows you the problem in a way. it's good that we're talking about the terms of a peace, but in some sense that may turn out to be the easiest problem. the politics on the israeli side and the palestinian side is very difficult. the politics of getting them back to the table is really the challenge that the administration is going to have going forward. and i think it's going to require two things, one, a real effort to develop and strengthen trust between the united states and the israelis, trust between the united states and the palestinians, and secondly, there's an issue of who is going to lead this process. senator mitchell has resigned, and i think one of the questions for the administration is going to be whether secretary of state hillary clinton is really going to step forward now and take this as part of her brief. in the end of the day, it is peace making in the middle east is presidential business, and it's going to have to be president obama. but he's going to need an agent in this process. one of the questions really is, with the mitchell resignation, who's that going to be. and i think it's probably going to have to be secretary of state. >> he, though, has a strong team on israel. he mentioned this morning dan shapiro, who has been his white house aide, who's moving to israel as ambassador, so when he's confirmed, he will have a very new, strong ambassador to egypt, who i'm not sure has been nominated yet but i believe she has, ann patterson who comes out of pakistan, and my guess is that the folks on ground there can do more. one other point. salam fayad of the palestinian authority has done an amazing job of standing up a palestinian security force with our support and the support of the jordanians. it's well trained. it's keeping peace in the west bank. and economic development there is at record levels in the last several years. people don't know that story. and i think palestine is in much better shape with leadership from president abbas to embrace this moment. and i think the same is true, really, of israel. and i suggested that the coalition might change for bibi netanyahu, but i think there's an opportunity to do what a majority of israelis want, which is move toward a two-state solution and a jewish state of israel with secure borders that the united states has already sworn many times to help israel protect. >> let me put the two of you on hold here for a second because we have to take another break. when we come back, palestinian representative to the u.s. joins us. man: all right. we were actually thinking, maybe... we're going to hike up here, so we'll catch up with you guys. 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