A Bush in sheep's clothing

[Ibtisam]

Once you strip away the mujamalat – the courtesies exchanged between guest and host – the substance of President Obama's speech in Cairo indicates there is likely to be little real change in US policy. It is not necessary to divine Obama's intentions – he may be utterly sincere and I believe he is. It is his analysis and prescriptions that in most regards maintain flawed American policies intact.

 

Though he pledged to "speak the truth as best I can", there was much the president left out. He spoke of tension between "America and Islam" – the former a concrete specific place, the latter a vague construct subsuming peoples, practices, histories and countries more varied than similar.

 

Labelling America's "other" as a nebulous and all-encompassing "Islam" (even while professing rapprochement and respect) is a way to avoid acknowledging what does in fact unite and mobilise people across many Muslim-majority countries: overwhelming popular opposition to increasingly intrusive and violent American military, political and economic interventions in many of those countries. This opposition – and the resistance it generates – has now become for supporters of those interventions, synonymous with "Islam".

 

It was disappointing that Obama recycled his predecessor's notion that "violent extremism" exists in a vacuum, unrelated to America's (and its proxies') exponentially greater use of violence before and after September 11, 2001. He dwelled on the "enormous trauma" done to the US when almost 3,000 people were killed that day, but spoke not one word about the hundreds of thousands of orphans and widows left in Iraq – those whom Muntazer al-Zaidi's flying shoe forced Americans to remember only for a few seconds last year. He ignored the dozens of civilians who die each week in the "necessary" war in Afghanistan, or the millions of refugees fleeing the US-invoked escalation in Pakistan.

 

As President George Bush often did, Obama affirmed that it is only a violent minority that besmirches the name of a vast and "peaceful" Muslim majority. But he seemed once again to implicate all Muslims as suspect when he warned, "The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer."

 

Nowhere were these blindspots more apparent than his statements about Palestine/Israel. He gave his audience a detailed lesson on the Holocaust and explicitly used it as a justification for the creation of Israel. "It is also undeniable," the president said, "that the Palestinian people – Muslims and Christians – have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than sixty years they have endured the pain of dislocation."

 

Suffered in pursuit of a homeland? The pain of dislocation? They already had a homeland. They suffered from being ethnically cleansed and dispossessed of it and prevented from returning on the grounds that they are from the wrong ethno-national group. Why is that still so hard to say?

 

He lectured Palestinians that "resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed". He warned them that "It is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus. That is not how moral authority is claimed; that is how it is surrendered." (Note: the last suicide attack targeting civilians by a Palestinian occurred in 2004)

 

Fair enough, but did Obama really imagine that such words would impress an Arab public that watched in horror as Israel slaughtered 1,400 people in Gaza last winter, including hundreds of sleeping, fleeing or terrified children, with American-supplied weapons? Did he think his listeners would not remember that the number of Palestinian and Lebanese civilians targeted and killed by Israel has always far exceeded by orders of magnitude the number of Israelis killed by Arabs precisely because of the American arms he has pledged to continue giving Israel with no accountability? Amnesty International recently confirmed what Palestinians long knew: Israel broke the negotiated ceasefire when it attacked Gaza last November 4, prompting retaliatory rockets that killed no Israelis until after Israel launched its much bigger attack on Gaza. That he continues to remain silent about what happened in Gaza, and refuses to hold Israel accountable demonstrates anything but a commitment to full truth-telling.

 

Some people are prepared to give Obama a pass for all this because he is at last talking tough on Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. In Cairo, he said: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."

 

These carefully chosen words focus only on continued construction, not on the existence of the settlements themselves; they are entirely compatible with the peace process industry consensus that existing settlements will remain where they are for ever. This raises the question of where Obama thinks he is going. He summarised Palestinians' "legitimate aspirations" as being the establishment of a "state". This has become a convenient slogan to that is supposed to replace for Palestinians their pursuit of rights and justice that the proposed state actually denies. Obama is already on record opposing Palestinian refugees' right to return home, and has never supported the right of Palestinian citizens of Israel to live free from racist and religious incitement, persecution and practices fanned by Israel's highest office holders and written into its laws.

 

He may have more determination than his predecessor but he remains committed to an unworkable two-state "vision" aimed not at restoring Palestinian rights, but preserving Israel as an enclave of Israeli Jewish privilege. It is a dead end.

 

There was one sentence in his speech I cheered for and which he should heed: "Given our interdependence, any world order that elevates one nation or group of people over another will inevitably fail."

 

• Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country, A Bold Proposal to end the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

 

The Guardian comments is free

[Ibtisam]

Hailed as a landmark moment Barack Obama's speech in Cairo to the Muslim World was much talked about & keenly anticipated, as far as the content goes it certainly lived up to the hype.

 

There's no questioning the charisma and charm that President Obama has on stage which surpasses that of any recent US President, but then again George W Bush was hardly a tough act to beat. It was this charisma that allowed him to deliver, almost flawlessly, a speech that said everything that Muslims wanted to hear including references to several verses of the Holy Quran which went down a treat with the Cairo audience.

 

There's no denying that Obama's speech contained all the right messages i.e. messages that the Muslim World wanted to and needed to hear from a US President.

 

His public endorsement of Muslim women's right to wear the Hijab and rebuke of those who seek to curb this right was refreshing and pleasing to hear.

 

His reference to the advances made by Muslim intellectuals in the fields of Science and Mathematics was a welcome message especially given the amount of hate churned out by critics of Islam which constantly attack Islam as being a "backward" faith.

 

He acknowledged America's own problems in dealing with Muslims, he noted that a clampdown on charitable donations in the US had impeded many Muslims right to pay the Zakat, an obligatory contribution that every Muslim person must make to the poor and needy. His commitment to help fix this showed his readiness to accept and challenge the flaws that exist within the US.

 

Most importantly however the issue of Palestine was given, after a very long time, the right amount of emphasis by a US President on a public platform.

 

However he did start off on the topic by declaring that the US bond with Israel was "Unbreakable". No stranger to the powerful pro-Israel lobby and its stranglehold on US foreign policy in the Middle East, this message was no doubt a reassurance to those at AIPAC HQ that he was not going to use America's 'special' relationship with Israel as a sacrificial lamb in his quest for dialogue with the Muslim World.

 

Despite this blatant pandering to the lobby, the messages he did deliver on Palestine were the strongest signs of support for Palestinian Statehood yet. His tough line on illegal Israeli settlements was also welcome news to the audience in Cairo and beyond. Most importantly it must have hammered home the message to the Israeli Government which has been taking an increasingly beligirent attitude with regards to the settlements.

 

Other than the status of Jerusalem, he touched on every aspect of Palestinians plight including the refugees and used the correct terminology referring to the plight of the Palestinians as "intolerable".

 

By mentioning the Civil Rights Movement in the US & the anti-Apartheid campaign in South Africa he cleverly linked the Palestinian plight in the same vain which certainly ruffled more than a few feathers amongst the Hasbara brigade, more on that at the end.

 

All in all his speech was well written, well delivered and it genuinely felt like he meant what he said.

 

Now comes the but....

 

Talking of such things i.e. Settlements, Palestinian Refugees etc is nothing new, the only difference is that this time round a Global audience tuned into listen. The real challenge and one that will prove the sincerity of President Obama is whether he will deliver on any of the key point he raised in his speech.

 

His speech was not well received by the Hasbara mob, including one of the oldest subscribers to the cause, Mel Phillips. Her disgust at the speech is difficult to miss in her blog post on the Right Wing Spectator magazine. To have ruffled Phillips' feathers in such a way certainly indicates that the US administration is finally talking seriously about the resolution of the Palestinian Plight and this reaction in itself should reassure some critics that maybe things really will be different under Obama.

 

However if I were to end this article in one sentence addressed to President Obama it would be...

 

 

"Less words Mr President and more action please"

 

 

If I see that then I too will be willing to give President Obama a standing ovation.

 

A different Perspective.

[Ibtisam]

 

The speech;

[NASSIR]

Ibtisam, I really liked the Speech.

 

All of us share this world for but a brief moment in time. The question is whether we spend that time focused on what pushes us apart, or whether we commit ourselves to an effort - a sustained effort - to find common ground, to focus on the future we seek for our children, and to respect the dignity of all human beings.

 

It is easier to start wars than to end them. It is easier to blame others than to look inward; to see what is different about someone than to find the things we share. But we should choose the right path, not just the easy path. There is also one rule that lies at the heart of every religion - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. This truth transcends nations and peoples - a belief that isn't new; that isn't black or white or brown; that isn't Christian, or Muslim or Jew. It's a belief that pulsed in the cradle of civilization, and that still beats in the heart of billions. It's a faith in other people, and it's what brought me here today

[rudy-Diiriye]

all i can say ibi is..no women no cry..no women no cry here. This speech was wc all over the world. what part u missed or were u busy with chingy!! :confused:

 

even osma got rocked and open his mouth!! lol.

[Ibtisam]

^^As usual WHAT? :confused:

 

Nassir:

Why? because it was a feel good sound bites, or because you think American policy has changed or even shifted slightly?? Killing us softly, the tongue says one thing, acts in the opposite, it only confuses the Miskeen followers who think he can make a difference, puts them back to sleep in a coma, because they think a “friend” is fighting on their side.

[MZanzi]

^^^Abunimah is spot on as always. Its amazing that Obama managed to trash Hamas and its use of 'violence' while blithely side-stepping Israeli violence completely. Israeli violence against the Palestinians doesnt not need to be overstated. Its an order of magnitude higher than what Hamas is capable of. So much for his speech. Empty rhetoric is an art form in Washington.

[Blessed]

He's an American president. A little decent and I think there is a genuine desire for reform from him but the policies of America will not change because those policies and the interests of America are bigger than any president. It's foolish to think that Obama will change the world.

 

 

rudy

Are you nursing a broken heart over Ibtisams marriage? Shaqo yeelo. :rolleyes:

[MZanzi]

Besides, Obama cannot do much, as Congress is bought and paid for by Israel and its allies (AIPAC, AEI, JINSA et al.) and everyone but the American people know it.

[rudy-Diiriye]

hey..u took a chance, so why not do the same for obama. u know that there is a chinese saying which goes like this!

 

u can get it if u really wanned it, if your eyes are not big enough to see shyte!! u feel what i am saying!! lool

 

kinda same boat u and all of us are in. Save trip inshallah.

[Fabregas]

^^ didn't expect you to be amongst the Obama cheerleaders, ya fam. You know what Mobb Deep once said: no such thing as a half way crook.

[Sherban Shabeel]

Obama is the best, but unfortunately he can't do much.

 

Israel will call the shots as long as there's rich yehoods firmly entrenched in the US.

[Goodir]

^Empty speech with no major policy change is the way to attract Arab-Muslims. If the place were Malaysia or Indonesia, he could not have said some of the things he said in Cairo. Perhaps the reason Cairo was chosen instead of the largest Muslim country by population on earth.

 

Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President. But my personal story is not so unique. The dream of opportunity for all people has not come true for everyone in America, but its promise exists for all who come to our shores - that includes

nearly seven million American Muslims in our country today

who enjoy incomes and education that are higher than average.

Nearly 7 Million? Fact or Fiction?

[Senora]

I respect the authors opinion, but dont quite agree with the high expectations? President Obama answers to the interests of America and its people. While his sincerity in changing

policies in the middle east is believable (and maybe even achievable), the long term goal of the speech was to improve America's image in the region. Keeping all that in mind, the speech had few surprises. It can be argued how big of a step was made yesterday, but a step forward was taken. One thing that can be agreed upon is that action is expected to follow the words...