Obama and The U.S.A self image

V- Barack Obama and the Restoration of the U.S.A Self-Image Abroad

1-Obama and the Arab World:

As the U.S.A makes history by the election of the first African-American president amid great expectations for change, so the Arab World hopes this change will include a substantial shift in U.S foreign policy. Arabs make no secret of their relief that Bush is finally leaving:

Arab leaders must privately be breathing a sigh of relief to see the exit of the man whom many admit as having been both the worst American president and... (Sana Abdallah).

The very first fact which ressured them is that Barack Obama carries an Arab-Muslim middle name «Hussein». This implies that Barack Hussein Obama will have the needed audacity, courage and support to introduce real changes to the traditional pro-Israel U.S policies in recent decades and confront the influence of Israeli lobbies in Washington. They hope that Barack Obama will go to be more moderate in tackling the Israeli-Palestenian issues and take into consideration the Israeli transegression and human rights violation seen in so many occasions like the 23-day Israeli war on Gaza that killed more^61(*) than 1,300 Palestenians, most of them civilians and hundreds of children, injured over 5,300 and destroyed thousands of buildings and homes.

Professor Shebly Telhami expressed the same hope for change by saying that:

It shows me that Barack Obama, who is due here in Cairo on June 4 to give an address to the Islamic world, has the chance to significantly reverse negative Arab attitudes toward the U.S. His mere election has already produced some welcome changes for the better. (Shebly Telhami, p1).

^62(*)Aaccording to an annual survey of Arab Public Opinion made by Telhami, Nearly half of Arabs polled in the last two months in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates said they had a "very positive" (11%) or "somewhat positive" (34%) view of Obama. Contrast that with George Bush, who Arabs regularly cited as the world leader they disliked the most. In the current 2009 poll, Obama does not register among disliked leaders, but Bush even out of office remains the No. 1 most disliked at 61%. And according to the same Poll, In Saudi Arabia, native land of Osama bin Laden, Obama is viewed very positively by 10% and somewhat positively by another 69% for a remarkable approval rating of 79%. This is a huge shift in the Arabs attitudes towards America and its leaders and this is a big achievement for Obama as an American president. In a speech he delivered in April7 when he was in Turkey, the first Muslim country he visited since he has taken the office, he declared that «the U.S. will never be at war with Islam.» In fact, Barack Obama's words and actions have resonated positively through out the Arab World and Muslim World. In an interview between Kiran Chetry, an anchor in C.N.N's American Morning and Hichem Milhem of Al-Arabeya about President Barack Obama message to the Muslims the latter said:

People realize that there is a new tone, that there is a new content, that there is a new language. Gone are the combustible words that President Bush used to use like Islamo [sic] Fascism. Now the new president talks about engagement, he talks about partnership, he talks about respect, mutual interests. President Bush seemed to many Arabs and Muslims every time he talks to them as if he is talking down to them, as if he is lecturing them. This new president is trying to engage them as potential partners in the fight against the real enemy of the United States and the real enemy of these governments which is al Qaeda. The president doesn't talk about the war on terror in general because the war on terror is a war on a tactic. He has a well-defined enemy called al Qaeda. He doesn't clump like, President Bush, all Islamic groups. He focuses only on al Qaeda. All of these things, they are nuances and people recognizes nuances and they appreciate that.

Look. President Bush, the way he framed the issue, the war on terrorism created a conceptual muddle and he confused a lot of people. When you fight an enemy, you have to define your enemy very well and President Obama is trying to do that.

Marc Ginsberg showed his support for Barack Obama in an article that he wrote for the Huffington Post. According to him, The American President's attempts to restore the U.S.A self-image in the Arab World will ^63(*)«facilitate an expedited withdrawal from Iraq, help incubate a new peace initiative between Israel and the Palestinians, arrest perhaps the growing strength of Hamas and Hezbollah, and enable the region to better acclimate to the need to develop and reform...and this is just the top of the list»

In other words, the Arab world is expecting that Barack Obama bridges the gap between it and the rest of the world; a gap created out ^64(*)of 9/11 legacy,the misunderstanding generating by the war on terrorism, the invasion of Iraq,Guantanamo, Abu Ghrib. This gap resulted in negative images about the Islamic world and Obama, through the things that he made; promosing to close down Guantanamo and to get out of Iraq, sending George Mitchell to mediate Arab-Israeli peacemaking is trying to repair this mutilated image about the Islamic World, something that the Arabs are yearning for a long time ago.

* ⁶¹ Sana Abdallah, Arabs Cautious over Obama, Happy about Bush Exit, Middle East Times, 25.

* ⁶² Shebly Telhami, Bush Bad, Obama Good, p 1.

* ⁶³ Marc Ginsberg, Changing Perceptions about America in the Arab World, Huffington Post.

* ⁶⁴ Kiran Chetry, Muslim World « likes » Obama's words, C.N.N's American Morning.