"We are all children of God," Saint Paul reminds us this Sunday in the reading from the Letter to the Romans. In interviews previewing the speech he will make Thursday in Cairo to the Arab world, President Barack Obama suggested he will encourage Muslims, Christians, and Jews to work together to find common solutions to the problems in the Middle East.

"I think the most important thing I want to tell young people is that, regardless of your faith, those who build as opposed to those who destroy I think leave a lasting legacy, not only for themselves but also for their nations," Obama said in an interview with Canal Plus, a French television station.

In an interview with the New York Times, the president said another key part of his message would be to "stop saying one thing behind closed doors and saying something else publicly." The president said he hoped to persuade the Arab people and ultimately their leaders to work with the United States.

"There are a lot of Arab countries more concerned about Iran developing a nuclear weapon than the 'threat' from Israel, but won't admit it," Obama said. There are a lot of Israelis "who recognize that their current path is unsustainable, and they need to make some tough choices on settlements to achieve a two-state solution--that is in their long-term interest--but not enough folks are willing to recognize that publicly."

There are also a lot of Palestinians, he said, who "recognize that the constant incitement and negative rhetoric with respect to Israel" has not delivered a single "benefit to their people and had they taken a more constructive approach and sought the moral high ground" they would be much better off today--but they won't say it aloud.

"We have a joke around the White House," the president said. "We're just going to keep on telling the truth until it stops working--and nowhere is truth-telling more important than the Middle East."

Source: An article by Reuters and a blog posting by Jeff Zeleny for the New York Times