Dear Mr. President,
Right from the start, I send you my honest congratulations for your inauguration as the 44th president, the first black ever, of the United States of America. This means that you are going to be another link in the long chain of presidents and you can choose either to be a conventional president, or a special and positive one of great impact upon the whole world and be added to the prudent and charismatic presidents of America who are not already so many, as you know.
Dear Sir, I am an Arab, a Middle Eastern who too “has a dream” like that of Martin Luther King, which wonderfully came true by you and I hope mine is born to life during your term.
And I undoubtedly know that many Americans shall heed this message because I have spent a measure of my life in America and I know how they think, so I hope you come to read it too.
I have a dream when we are not anymore spurred to hate American policies and consequently hate the state of America and its culture, the disease I wish our region would not catch again while you are president.
I am looking forward to the day when America, as the leader of a free world, not a bitter one, breaks its silence if an old man, a woman or a child is killed just because they are Palestinian. The day when we, the peoples of the Middle East, are not attracted to support political or ideological extremists or those trading with their causes because of your refraining from adopting an unbiased attitude.
The Middle East, Sir, is neither as distinct nor as complicated as it has been depicted during the past sixty years. And maybe that is the reason why we too differently understand you.
If petrol and other interests are the secret, I can assure that there are other tens of spots and countries entirely capable of producing oil more than ours more times without number. However, we have been satisfied by the world’s thrusting us into these illusions.
If the Arab-Israeli conflict makes our region an unsettling one, there are various places where the human toll exceeded that of Palestine and other places (And how many people were killed during the 20th century in Middle Europe and in the racial conflicts in Rwanda and Yugoslavia: all are conflicts, ended by peace efforts or by acceptable and balanced political transformations). Then, why should we accept the lies of the impossibility of solving our problems and who shall make use of this?
In one sense, and if terrorism is one reason behind this deterioration, Muslims alone are not to be blamed because other religions and creeds are also known to include fanatics, sometimes in an awesome way. However, all crises come to an end, leaving the flames of the Middle East liable to blowing, due to some certain policies, followed in this very region and fed by sedition.
As a fact, Arabs are generous and passionate peoples on the contrary of how they were depicted by the American and Western media in general. We have not ever killed a child or an old man. Why then there are whispers, trying to accuse us of merely being beasts or human-meat eaters, while our folks are slaughtered by hundreds.
Actually, what we need, Mr. President, is a “will revolution,” replacing all the miseries our history has experienced due to colonialism, during the 20th century and afterwards. Do you know why? Because freedom is not the result of nothing but of the strong will.
Within the past two decades, our region has witnessed the growth of a plant called fanaticism and I have misgivings about the West’s watering it to flourish uncontrollably in this very part and other parts of the world.
Obviously, this plant produced the wars Israel fought during the last three years, so can there be any steps of yours on the road of restoring political realism and logic in dealing with the Palestinian cause, away from creating a fictitious enemy called terrorism and interests, namely oil?
Indeed, my children and those of the world will remember the great moments when you took the oath of the U.S. presidency, yet with the backdrop of slain children and babies and the use of forbidden weapons in Gaza. I, for one, thank God that the event of January 21th, 2009 brought this aggression to an end, and no one can believe that Israel brought its attacks to an end immediately before your inauguration without there being a cause related to the USA and the inauguration of its president.
Each and every Arab child dreams of not seeing other Arab children in Palestine or Iraq killed in cold blood. We are all dreaming of the day when your country provides us with science, knowledge and civilization instead of furnishing Israel with bombs, destroyers and warships.
Israel and the entire world must perceive that important moments are not easily forgotten, how long it might last. So, please Mr. Obama, remember that on the day of your inauguration, you hosted nine students who changed the face of history of America in the Little Rock, Arkansas high school in the 60s. It is also history that brought you back to May 17th, 1954 when the higher Court of Washington ended racial discrimination in the American schools when it invalidated the laws of “Separate but Equal.”
Still, we are hoping that you help bring about a recognized Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. And please bear in mind that the Arab world shall be soon weary of forwarding offers and concessions as the Saudi King said in the Arab economical summit that the Arab initiative will not be available before the Israelis for good.
Overall, the Middle East is increasingly at the center of the greedy and the trouble makers and the illusions of impossible solutions must be dispelled. It is not a spot more complicated than the wars of America or the other world which took millions of souls.
Dear Mr. President, if you wish to make the dreams of Martin Luther King come true, we are looking forward to this, because King’s dreams are not restricted to America; they are shared with everyone in this globe. The children of Palestine have the dream of living a noble and free life. They wish to go to school every day in the morning without fears and enjoy sleeping at night without the least worries. Those children see your two little sweet daughters walking behind you and they have the right to be like them.
Presently, the image of America in the world’s eyes is at its worst so you have to choose between bettering it or to never cease sending more Americans to the farthest part of the world to fight an unknown enemy and be killed for an unknown reason.
And to pull this message short, our dream is nothing but that one which got you to take the helms of your great country and this may be the last chance in the horizon to make our children trust the abilities of Uncle Sam’s States, but we cannot guess what they shall be in the face of death. Only then, you will realize how the cruel and cruelty make themselves in history.
Dr. Ali Bin Hamad Al Khushaiban
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