ARABS SPLIT ON OBAMA SPEECH : AZ IMC

By Aladdin Elaasar
President Obama’ speech brought mixed feelings amongst Arabs and even Muslims. His long- awaited historical speech had many people having very high expectations on it. In most cases, it was well-received, but it came short of strong messages and statements that many people expected him to deliver. Critics of the Obama speech objected to his choice of place to begin with, especially, going to Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
At least he is not another George W. Bush who was very unpopular in the region, says one Obama enthusiast. Optimists hope that it will turn a new page in the Arab/Muslim/American relations. But not all Arabs and Muslims were happy about the speech. They appreciated the visit and the good gestures. Not all Arabs are Muslims, and not all Muslims are Arabs. There are millions of Christian Arabs. And Arabs are but a small number of the larger Muslim population in the world. Some people suggested that Obama could have delivered his speech from the U.N., or even from the comfort of the Oval Office at the White House. Others suggested Malaysia or Indonesia, an area that Mr. Obama is so familiar with growing up there.
Arabs and Muslims expected Obama to come out strongly on issues such as freedom, democracy, human rights, oppression and failing economies. But Obama tried hard to give something to everybody. He said something to the Arabs about Palestinians. But what will materialize out the Israeli/Palestinian peace talks is something to wait for.
Arabs have been used to hearing a lot about the Palestinian cause to the extent that they became numb and cynical. They feel that even their own leaders have been middling with the Palestinian issue since 1948 exploiting it, and at time sabotaging many attempts for settlement. It is very convenient to every Arab dictator to mobilize and marshal the masses behind a very emotional cause such as the Palestinian cause. For dictators, it is OK for Arab dictators to let their people go out and burn American and Israeli flags, but it is not OK that Arab journalists would demonstrate for freedom.
The Palestinian cause has served Arab dictators as a good excuse to maintain dictatorship, emergency laws, grave human rights abuses, absolute power, and military rule, while claiming that they were going to liberate the Palestinians. It justified the crazy arms race throughout the region for more than half a century squandering, in some cases, more than half of the national income on buying weapons to entrench a detested authoritarian regime. It is also convenient to let the Arab masses vent their anger towards an outside enemy, or sometimes an internal minority, rather than talking about nagging domestic issues of jobless and hopeless youth, a demographic ticking bomb.
Critics of the Obama visit see that American interest was not served well when a popular American president was seen shaking hands with an 82 years old dictator such as Mubarak, who has been criticised by the U.S. State Dept over the years for grave human rights abuses and stifling democracy in Egypt since 1981. They see that that visit benefited the ailing Mubarak who is eager to get the green light for his son Gamal to inherit him as the next president of Egypt.
Poor Mr. Obama! He has embarked on an almost impossible mission trying to please everyone in the Middle East, as if he had a magic stick in his hand. One thing is to shake hands with the elite; another thing is to try to please the Angry Arab Street. One thing for sure, Arabs are waiting for a new savior who would deliver them from their own oppressors. The Mehdi or the Messiah this time could be Barack Hussein Obama.
Aladdin Elaasar is author of “The Last Pharaoh: Mubarak and the Uncertain Future of Egypt in the Volatile Mid East” and Silent Victims: The Plight of Arabs and Muslims in Post 9/11 America. Elaasar has been a commentator on Middle Eastern affairs on American TV and Radio, and a media and cultural consultant. Email: omaraladin@aol.com