Over the next few days we’re hoping to devote attention to President Obama’s speech in Cairo and offer various reactions. The following is from our regular contributor Seham:
Well, I hate to rain on any ones parade but I am not particularly
excited about Obama’s upcoming speech in Cairo. I do wonder what type
of theatrics there will be, though. I hope they bring their own stage
and production crew from the U.S. because Egyptians would try to turn
it into one of their lame music videos and Amr Diab
would wind up MC-ing the whole event, clad in a white suit, with lots
of clapping and a jackass on a Casio. Or maybe in a shout-out to all
Egyptian taxi drivers they would feature Hakim–with James Brown, of course. But they probably wouldn’t ask Shabaan Abdel Raheem to participate, even though he dresses like Liberace’s tackier step brother and he wrote a catchy tune about Obama that invokes Saladin (eng subtitles).
If Obama really was trying to turn a new leaf in the Middle East, he wouldn’t have chosen a police state that tortures, humiliates and suppresses any dissent in that country. Robert Fisk sums it up best:
“And please note that Obama has chosen Egypt for his latest address to
the Muslims, a country run by an ageing potentate – Hosni Mubarak is 80
– who uses his secret police like a private army to imprison human
rights workers, opposition politicians, anyone in fact who challenges
the great man’s rule. At this point, we won’t mention torture. Be sure
that this little point is unlikely to get much play in the Obama
sermon, just as he surely will not be discussing Saudi Arabia’s orgy of
head-chopping when he chats to King Abdullah on Wednesday.”
Clap, clap, clap Mr. Fisk.
But, this is all
political theater and time wasting. The more time that goes on the
more time that the Israelis have to create facts on the ground that
will be near impossible to reverse. And when Obama talks about the
two-state solution, that’s just more time being wasted. Besides, Obama is only talking about freezing settlement growth, not about uprooting
any of the settlements. All this posturing by Netanyahu and Obama
about the expansion of the settlements is absurd because there is no
such thing as a Palestinian state or any kind of two-state solution
with settlements running through it. So, the discussion, if it is to
be a legitimate one, around the two-state solution should revolve around when
those settlements will be removed not about whether they should be
getting bigger.
And Abbas has shown in the last few days that he is
willing to spill Palestinian blood
to retain his illegitimate and insignificant power. Abbas will accept
anything that the Israelis offer him; Hamas will protest; the U.S. will
then use that as an opportunity to completely sideline Hamas by telling
them that they are extremists and unwilling to negotiate (status quo).
Then Obama, Netanyahu and Abbas will all shake hands at Camp David but
those settlement blocs in the West Bank will remain in place and the
media will be shocked when the Palestinians launch a third or fourth
intifada because those pesky Palestinians were born to make trouble…
So, I’m not really interested in the content of whatever Obama says
in Cairo, I don’t expect much to change. Obama has already said that
no matter what, the U.S. will continue to support Israel at the UN and that he won’t be cutting aid to Israel.
But, I do think that Obama will first shower the Arabs and Muslims with
flowery praise for Islam’s contributions to civilization; promise to
work hard towards the illegitimate two-state solution; remind everyone
that half of his family is Muslim; and then lightly scold the Arabs on
their “extremism” and tell them to quit blaming everything on the U.S.
and Israel… all the while being hosted by his allies in Saudi Arabia
and Egypt and of course not forgetting to gently remind the Lebanese who they should vote for on Sunday.
Great message to Obama in the NYT’s today, by the way:
“WHAT could Barack Obama tell the Muslim world tomorrow that we would be
happy to hear? He could tell us that he’s going to stay out of our elections.”
