Obama: More Arab than Some Arabs

Much has been said about President Barack Obama. He has been the topic of conversation both before he won the presidency and since he took over the position. In the beginning, people focused on his Kenyan-Muslim father and the fact that his middle name is Hussein, something that has provoked ethnic criticism against him. Then people took it a step further, accusing him of secretly being a Muslim and that, consequently, he wouldn’t remain neutral in his Middle Eastern policies and would oppose Israel. The speech he gave at Cairo University a few months after he took over the presidency and his efforts to initiate cooperation with the Islamic world further provoked unfriendly comments from right-wing Americans. In the eight years that preceded the Obama administration, these same members of the American conservative base preferred to use their “War on Terrorism” to shove their weapons in the face of so-called radical Islam in order to keep it from spreading to America.

Defending Obama isn’t our business. It’s up to the Americans themselves to evaluate his official stances, character and internal policies, as well as perhaps his external policies that affect the entire globe. Lately, he has been implementing his policies in the Arab world in keeping with the framework of his vision for a comprehensive global strategy.

It would seem that maybe he’s showing some compassion for the Arabs, though maybe in reality he’s just trying to serve American interests. While George W. Bush was in power, the ruling Republican Party’s strategy was one of direct attacks with armies, planes and ballistic missiles to protect what they perceived to be the interests of America, and its internal and external security. On the other hand, the Democrat’s strategy is to develop relations abroad and limit use of the military to addressing hot topics in a small group of regions, with the current focus being on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Obama is currently taking on the Arab-Israeli conflict, keeping in mind that the American administration considers the struggle to be between Arabs and Israelis rather than Palestinians and Israelis. The administration is addressing the effects of the conflict at both the regional and international level, as its consequences are felt in several different areas of the world. It is certain that the human aspect of the conflict is strongly mixed in with America’s real interests and has had a strong influence in shaping the American administration’s policies.

It would be unreasonable for the world’s sole superpower to stand by and watch the tragedy of the blockade of Gaza unfold, as well as the recklessness in building new settlements on Palestinian land and the destruction of the homes of Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah and other neighborhoods in Arab Jerusalem. It would also be unreasonable for the 43- year occupation to continue without the U.S. taking the necessary steps to end it.

The Arabs have been and continue to remain silent about the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands despite the fact that they carry more of an obligation than others to end it. The Palestinians didn’t have a standing army in 1948 and yet, at the time, all the other Arabian armies withdrew, leaving behind a powerful Israeli victor rather than Palestine as an independent Arabian state. In 1967, there wasn’t a standing Palestinian army and yet the Arabian armies withdrew from what was left of Palestine, leaving Israel to occupy all of historic Palestine in addition to the Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights.

Since the war of 1973, the Arabs have washed their hands of the plight of the Palestinians and have reserved themselves to the current situation. They have even backed off from repeating condemnations and refutations of Israel, something for which they have received much criticism.

And now what’s happening? Jerusalem is about to be completely transformed into a Jewish city, the al-Aqsa mosque is being threatened with demolition and collapse, and Jewish radicals are calling for a construction project on the site of the Islamic holy ground of al-Aqsa both publicly and on posters on the sides of buses passing through Arab neighborhoods in the holy city. In addition, there are half a million Israeli settlers in the West Bank, a number that is likely to rise one million in a decade at most.

Meanwhile, a million and a half Gazans have been living under siege for four years. The blockade is just as much being perpetuated by the Israelis as it is by the Arabs and Islam, a reality that has drained us as Arabs of any sense of brotherhood, solidarity or honor, and has betrayed everything we’ve been taught about how Arabs and Muslims are supposed to act.

When Obama places among his main demands of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin that he desist from building new settlements in Jerusalem, discuss the issue of Jewish settlements in general and put an end to the blockade of Gaza, then he is, without a doubt, far ahead of the ineffective Arab regimes. It is here that we remember Qatari Amir’s condemnation of the farce of the ongoing blockade of Gaza and when he asked in bewilderment, “Are we as Arabs truly incapable of ending the blockade of Gaza?”

That Obama and the free Europeans are moved to action by the tragedy of the Palestinian people and are doing what they can to confront the controversy of the Israeli West Bank barrier in the towns of Ni’lin and Bil’in, to send convoys and ships to the blockaded Gaza, and to organize demonstrations and protests in every capital they can reach while the Arabs, or at least some Arabs, are stuck in another valley completely, on some faraway planet that can’t be seen, not saying a word except maybe to nod their heads and go along with what other nations are already doing — this is the greatest tragedy of the conflict.

Before the end of the article, I want to change the title a bit, for if Obama really was conducting himself as an Arab in his policies, which primarily serve American interests, then why do we attribute this same characteristic to some “Arabs”? Are they “Arabs” in the true meaning inherited by our proud lineage?

I’ll go ahead and put the title at the end of the article rather than at the beginning: Obama is acting more like an Arab than those who are only “Arab” in name.

Allah has been at our side as Palestinians. The $500 million that the Arab League has promised us (though we don’t know specifically to whom among us) will be enough — that is, if they send it at all and it is received by the Jerusalemites that are threatened with displacement from their own city while the Arabs watch.

We can always hope!