More on Obama's Cairo Speech
A few days after the speech given by President Obama in Cairo, heralded as “An American president speaks to the Muslim world,” I decided to gauge the reaction to the speech here in Morocco. So I will preface this by saying it is completely unscientific. I only spoke to native Moroccans I have met, which might taint the data.
But what I did learn is shocking. A teacher at the children’s association in which I work at first refused to discuss politics with an American. But then she opened up a bit and was extremely negative towards the speech. Another teacher said Obama really doesn’t know the solution. The only solution is for Israel to cease to exist. He continued saying, “There are two extremes, but I stay away from being extreme. My way is the middle way, but it’s the right way.” His final comment gave me pause: “Israel has to give all its land to Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital. Ask anyone in Arab country [sic], poor or rich, young or old, and they will tell you this.” A student in the English course said he liked what he heard, but given the history of both Republican and Democratic presidents in the Middle East, he’s not expecting much. Overall, very negative which gives credence to a Le Monde poll which gave Arab approval of President Obama around 33%. Better than President Bush’s of around 8%, but still not too popular.
The one teacher’s comment that all Arabs agree that Israel must cease to exist and that this is a moderate position is revealing. Of course, ask any liberal academic or Palestinian apologist in the US, and you are told, “No, no, the Palestinians just want some land in which they can live.” That is a questionable claim to begin with, but then you ask an Arab on the street, and you’re told that Israel must cease to exist, and most everyone agrees with that. We in the US never fully comprehend that conflict, but given the prevalence of these attitudes and the number of people willing to die so that Israel ceases to exist, it is foolish to think that Israel faces anything but an existential threat each and every day. Obama did nothing but harm our relationship with Israel by undermining the Netanyahu government throughout his speech and by granting Iran the right to pursue nuclear arms. Criticisms throughout the campaign that Obama was naive in foreign affairs fall far short: he’s not only naive, but his naïveté is outright dangerous.
