An Obama Speech In Gaza

The world has long awaited such words. What U.S. President Barack Obama said to the Arab network al-Arabiya in his first interview since taking office expressed an entire policy change in just a few words. His tone alone, along with his stated respect for the Islamic world, signaled a significant break from the previous administration.

Surely, concrete results will soon emerge. The new U.S. negotiator George Mitchell is already traveling in the region; if his dialogue partners are truthful with him and he actually listens to them, the size of the trash heap the United States has to remove should become readily apparent. Obama has already begun the cleanup action but thus far has avoided dealing with the really tough items. Guantanamo is important symbolically, but the prison camp at Baghram, Afghanistan, is dimensionally far more important and the conditions there far more grim. For the future, it becomes more important if Obama really wants to change the focus from Iraq to Afghanistan.

By the end of April (and thus within the framework of his first 100 days), Obama intends to deliver a speech in a major Islamic city. Where that will be is of the highest symbolic value. If Obama does not want to backslide into the old realpolitik policies of the pre-Bush era, if he actually wants to offer the disenfranchised Arab populations another choice beside stagnation on the one hand and Islamism on the other, then he shouldn’t kowtow to any of the authoritarian regimes in Riyad, Cairo or the Emirates. If he chooses Iraq or Afghanistan, he speaks as an occupier. Syria, Iran, or Sudan are automatically excluded. Indonesia might be appropriate, but it is too far removed from the conflicted area. Palestine remains.

But, Ramallah would only be a symbol of change provided the Fatah government were able to gain authority and legitimacy by that time. Israel’s attack on Gaza proved how ineffective the Fatah government actually is. That would have to be one of George Mitchell’s goals – but in 100 days? An Obama speech in Gaza would really be something, but probably not even the great agent of change in Washington would dare attempt that.