“We are Jews. We don’t have to save the Palestinian heritage,” says Itzik Shweky of the Society for Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites. But an American Jew from Brooklyn says the abandoned Palestinian village of Lifta is important for Jews as well as Arabs.

"Something is changing," says an Israeli sociologist, "and I don't know, but I think it will come here. It's very difficult to believe the whole Arab world will be in riots and Jerusalem and West Bank are going to be quiet."

Along with a responsibility to protect, international coalition military forces intervening in Libya also have a responsibility to respect.

"Many people are hoping there will be a more pluralistic government that will embrace the Christian Copts," says Qamar-ul Huda, a senior program officer at the US Institute of Peace.

Read more of the Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly interviews with American Jews about Israel.

Tufts University international relations professor Vali Nasr and veteran Middle East correspondent Kate Seelye, now a vice president at the Middle East Institute in Washington, discuss President Obama's speech to the world's Muslims.