‘Trump shows America’s dominant ideology’: A Palestinian take on the US election

Dear American people, congrats for the new president! There are 59 million of you who are celebrating this. Let me tell you how things looks like from the other part of the world, the Middle East.

Some people here are happy as you are, but for a different reason. They see Trump as representing the true face of America: white supremacy. He does not try to beautify racism, elitism, xenophobia behind rhetorics, he says it as it is. They think for what America has done in the world, this is what suits it best. Others are wary his deeds as a president, internally and towards the outside. However, both camps agree on one thing: He is a very bad choice. And he is no different than the leaders we are fighting to overthrow here.

Not that they see Hillary as a better choice. On the contrary. In fact the Middle East’s view was that this elections was about the lesser of evils. So make no doubt.

Now that you know you have made a bad choice in the eyes of the rest of the world, regardless if you think it’s right, and regardless if it was through free elections, let’s recall history. What happens if the US is not happy with people’s choice in the rest of the world? 

In 2006, Palestinians elected Hamas in a free election according to all international observers including the UN. Israel, the US and Europe did not like the results. They boycotted the Hamas Government, and cut all financial aid to the Palestinians as a punishment for their choice. Later on, this developed into supporting and collaborating with the Israeli blockade on Gaza, besieging about 2 million people in the biggest open earth prison on earth.

Iraq’s current destruction is because one of your presidents thought he has the “divine” mission to save the Iraqis from their dictator, and he decided to do so by lunching into war and destroying a whole country.

This attitude is not exclusive to the Middle East, google US interventions in Latin America, Vietnam and more to explore further.

I think what was striking for many of us this election, is the massive support Trump has received despite his blatant racist, elitist and sexist attitude towards people of color, immigrants, refugees, women etc., his hostility towards the Arab countries and more. No matter how you explain the voting trends, people voted for the package Trump represented.

For long we have struggled to differentiate between the Americans and America, between the people and the regime. You now make it harder!

We hear and understand the experts’ analysis on the “white working class” voting against the establishment and for a better economy. But listen to yourself, it’s a “white working class”, who voted for its own interest regardless of Trump’s racism, xenophobic messages and plans. I mean don’t you see how ethnocentric this is?

We are aware that Americans are not one hegemonic entity, and that it is composed of many different groups and communities with different privileges, classes, fears, concerns, struggles and fights. But the election of Trump shows what ideology is dominant and popular.

Americans have a long way to go. The first thing you should stop doing is preaching to the world about democracy, freedom, values and start dealing with your own, excuse my language, shit. You were/are no better than other nations. Please stop with this “America is the greatest nation”, no you are not! You are like many others, with so many problems and issues you need to deal with.

It’s actually the opposite, it’s time for you to ask people in the so called “Third World” for advice, because we know your regime much better than you, and because we have been long resisting backward/racist/tyrant/dangerous regimes, that your country has supported, worked with, or sometimes against (depends on your interest) only to bring destruction and disaster.

Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, we don’t have power, weapons, forces, NATO or money to come “save” you, we have enough issues to deal with here. You have to do it on your own.

We just hope that the election of Trump will shake and wake enough of you so you join the struggle for justice everywhere. This is the bright side we all together should see!

A version of this post first appeared on Abir Kopty’s website

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An excellent article. It truly reflects how the rest of the world (unfortunately) feels about the US and it’s policies. It is sad to see the “what goes around, comes around” and the “America is asking for it” comments that many show in social media. Many in the world sympathize with this horrible decision to vote for this unbelievably unhinged man, yet there is a good point when they say that we get what we vote for, and for the consequences of such a decision, which would be felt in every corner of the world.
To me, the majority who voted preferred to cut off their nose to spite their face, and the rest of us will feel the pain for years to come. Trump and his bunch of deplorable will be hitting that final nail in the coffin. It is a scary situation right now.

I am astounded that someone with such a lack of (good) character could be elected to the highest office of power. It’s not a unique result in terms of world events. Indeed Israel has nutty and Canada had Mulrooney and Harper. In our case when Mulrooney declared Canada was open for business little did we know that subsequent events would show that it meant he was for sale and would be accepting hundreds of thousands in bribes as if he was a petty third world despot.

I avoided commenting on pre election articles as it’s not my election but now it’s over and done.

This was Hilary’s and the Democrats election to lose and they did it remarkably well.

I don’t know the size of the party but it is time for the democrats to do a lot of introspection. Hilary is not as vile, vulgar, misogynist or racist as trump yet she is not a person that I could ever support as a candidate. Her character and past has far too many black spots. Whatever the size of the party surely it could have found someone who was better suited to the task. Someone with a less checkered past who had the best interests of the country at heart. Hilary truly was the establishment candidate and there are many tens of millions of people who are tired of the country being run in the interests solely of the establishment.

I have said I couldn’t vote for Hilary so I have to add I couldn’t vote for Trump either. I do believe it’s a duty to vote so I would have had to pick a third party candidate.

I hope Trump’s hands will be tied to the extent that he can’t deliver on some of his more damaging campaign promises. I find hope in the fact that we have such a corrupt system that politicians rarely do deliver.

Thanks for this honest article, Abir. Thanks also to Carlos for his excellent representation of what has happened.

“Americans have a long way to go. The first thing you should stop doing is preaching to the world about democracy, freedom, values and start dealing with your own, excuse my language, shit. You were/are no better than other nations. Please stop with this “America is the greatest nation”, no you are not! You are like many others, with so many problems and issues you need to deal with.

It’s actually the opposite, it’s time for you to ask people in the so called “Third World” for advice, because we know your regime much better than you, and because we have been long resisting backward/racist/tyrant/dangerous regimes, that your country has supported, worked with, or sometimes against (depends on your interest) only to bring destruction and disaster. …”

Hurrah for speaking the truth!

I have long been ashamed of and more than concerned with America’s hypocritical and massively destructive killing machine of a ‘foreign policy’. Perhaps some in America will one day wake up to recognize this. As far as dominant “white supremacy”, US exceptionalism, and xenophobia that some wrongly think that only just seized this country~ it has been stoked and tended by many, and ignored by too many others who would rather blame anyone other than themselves.

I read this in an article this morning:

“Trump’s Victory: The Night White Supremacy Made It to the White House

… I thought that the election and re-election of Barack Obama by a coalition of America’s ethnic and religious and sexual-orientation spectrum laid the false religion of white supremacy to rest. Now I realize that Obama’s very presence in the White House, his capability and his dignity, were more than white supremacy could bear. Now my folly and my naiveté are revealed.

One part of me, looking at the entirely unpredicted election results, cannot help but wonder if Vladimir Putin’s hackers have suborned the voting process. Believe it or not, that conspiracy theory qualifies as optimism. More likely, and far worse, the United States has gleefully hugged evil to its morally contaminated breast. …”

http://www.haaretz.com/world-news/u-s-election-2016/1.752049

You rightly ask and then answer this important question:

“What happens if the US is not happy with people’s choice in the rest of the world?”

Thank you.

Israeli government ministers and political figures are pushing the US president-elect, Donald Trump, to quickly fulfill his campaign promise to overturn decades of US foreign policy and recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv.

Their calls came as one of Trump’s advisers on Israel and the Middle East, David Friedman, told the Jerusalem Post that Trump would follow through on his promise.

It was a campaign promise and there is every intention to keep it,” Friedman said. ‘We are going to see a very different relationship between America and Israel in a positive way.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/nov/09/israel-donald-trump-netanyahu-jerusalem

He promise in March 2016 to move the U.S. Embassy in an interview with uber-Zionist gatekeeper, Wolf Blitzer:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/209712

And Jerusalem’s Mayor didn’t waste any time reminding him that now’s a good time.:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/11/09/israeli-leaders-congratulate-trump-then-tell-him-to-hurry-up-and-move-u-s-embassy-to-jerusalem/

And the Israel’s Palestinian tool Abbas is still keeping the corpse of the two-state solution in his freezer thinking it might rise from the dead.:

A spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said, “We are ready to deal with the elected president on the basis of a two-state solution and to establish a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders.”

One thing to Obama’s credit is that he did go easy on the “America is great’ rhetoric and acknowledge, at least at the start, that the US might learn something from other countries. Evidently that was too much reality for most Americans to tolerate.