The Nobel, Obama and Hope

Many criticized the Nobel Prize committee’s decision to award this year’s peace prize to the United States President Barack Hussein Obama. Critics said the man hasn’t done anything yet; all he has done so far is raise hopes and expectations. They also said he has done nothing other than what’s required by his position. It was said that there are global elites who want to reward the man quickly to pull the rug out from under his feet before he does something reckless; meaning that the award was kind of a bribe to a moral idealist.

They said the committee broke the rules by giving the award to a leader still running a war and about to send more troops to Afghanistan. Yes, much has been said against granting the prize to Obama; even here in the United States, many things have been said and written as criticism.

Despite all the criticism, I personally see many important and encouraging messages in giving him the award. This award to the American president means that the prize committee has given hope to a man of the highest political, military and economic authority on the surface of the planet. This award says to him, you have to rise to the award’s level and ascend to the moral peak and humanity that he has come to represent; you, Mr. President, have to be one of the world’s greatest celebrities, one who gives hope, stability, and cooperates and works for peace.

In this sense, this award is a symbol of the desire that President Obama will meet the level of expectations and hope that people have in him, keeping in mind that the previous president set the world on fire, tarnished the reputation of his country and reflected an image of America that no American wants.

This award also kind of says that we’ve been waiting for him, that we needed a new global hero, an inspirational leader with a big heart and a different policy. This award says: Make peace, Mr. Obama. The world needs you.

It has to be said that the world lacks great inspirational leaders and global humanitarian visionaries. It also has to be said that the world is drowning in the grip of ethnic and religious conflicts, and is heading toward real disaster unless this is prevented by great leaders. With this inhuman globalization, which is threatening peoples and nations, the world is becoming more barbarous, and this must be tempered or stopped. This award, which is the most prestigious in the world, is offered to the leader who demands full and comprehensive change.

The change in discourse and treatment, as expressed in Obama’s famous speeches in both Turkey and Egypt, where he addressed the Muslim world, says clearly and sincerely that America recognizes others and their cultures, and that there is no room for hatred, contempt or racial discrimination. They show that areas of cooperation between the United States and the Islamic world are available; only the will has been lacking. Obama was clear in his condemnation of the Israeli occupation, which needs to end, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. He was also clear and precise when he said that former U.S. policies proved ineffective and that peoples and nations are free to choose their own means of livelihood and political systems.

Obama was modest, persuasive and ethical in both Turkey and Egypt. He didn’t appear to be calling America the center of the world, its master, teacher or policeman. He said in his speeches that America is looking for a partner or partners to work toward world peace and a brighter future. He said that America does not want to change the world by force, but will work to change the world in full partnership with those who are willing, free of discrimination and without a superiority complex or terrorism. Obama was moderate, balanced and willing to make progress, beginning with a fresh start.

His speeches in Turkey and Egypt were a way of easing the tension between the two worlds, and were kind of the first line on a new page of relations between them. Arabs and Muslims are no longer the enemies of America. America is no longer the enemy of Arabs and Muslims. That’s what Obama wanted to say, and that’s what the award meant to congratulate. The frantic search for the enemy, as defined by the previous administration, led to the destruction of the world, which was then distorted by terror and violence, wars and bloodshed. Obama, the president who came from a different ethnic background and a global humanitarian culture, wanted to stop all that.

Was the award, in a way, an approval of Obama’s great move to remove and ease the stereotypical image of American enmity toward the Arab and Islamic worlds? Perhaps the answer is partially yes. Obama is also working on global nuclear disarmament, or at least an end to the arms race. This matter is of paramount importance, especially as the world is now crowded with nuclear weapons, which threaten every living thing in the world.

The American president expressed his surprise at the prize committee’s decision, and, with all humility and confidence, said he doesn’t deserve to join those who have previously received this great honor. However, he accepted on the grounds that this award will give him the moral motivation and support to carry out his grand humanitarian mission.

Obama’s acceptance of the award means that he must bear the burden of this award; he can’t be any less and he will not fail the world nor whoever awarded him this prize. He won’t be the likes of Shimon Peres, for example, who was awarded the peace prize but then carried out a massacre, which provoked demands from many who received it previously for it to be taken away. Obama, the president, the man and the idea, accepted the award because he is carrying a message where certain parts have been reviled and the rest has not been completed yet.

We, the Palestinians, see one stop down a long road in granting Obama the award. We want him to be a man of the world, a man of ideals and a man of peace. As he said in his speech in Cairo, the anguish of the Palestinians must stop. We want to remind him that our anguish is still ongoing; the Israeli atrocity is still at its peak, the Palestinian expulsion from Jerusalem is still continuing, and the occupation and settlement is still active, and perhaps more so than in any previous period.

We are all hoping, as Palestinians, to see Obama, a different president in a different administration, not repeat the mistakes of his predecessors. We know what the U.S. machine represents and understand its desire for hegemony and expansion, but we also know that there are historical leaders who divert the course of history when they realize the bigger picture and the risks of the road.

I’m in favor of giving Obama this award despite all the criticism that has been said because I believe that history has a place for personal insight as well.