A LONG with most people around the world I’ve been rooting for Barack Obama, now America’s president-elect. This time, the American people chose well. With the country’s economy and foreign policy in a shambles it wasn’t difficult to opt for change rather than McCain — more of the same. But unlike most, Obama’s Nov. 4 triumph was a hopeful rather than an emotional moment for me.
While acknowledging his rise to the top as a historic civil rights milestone I don’t give one jot about the color of a US president’s skin and neither am I interested in his spouse’s wardrobe choices or what breed of puppy the new first family will opt for.
In the final analysis, it’s his policies and the way they are implemented that count. Will they alleviate suffering, help quell conflicts, heal divisions and successfully battle the ongoing global financial tsunami are questions I want resolved.
However, we’re going to have to wait many months for answers. For following his Jan. 20, 2009 inauguration into office he will be wrapped up with tackling the economy and dismantling the more myopic of his predecessor’s executive orders...at least for a while.
Obama out there on the stump definitely talked a good talk but whether or not he can walk the walk is yet to be seen. I hesitate to prejudge him when he hasn’t even arranged his Oval Office desk but I can’t help noticing that his choice of advisers thus far is inauspicious when it comes to the Middle East.
Take his new White House Chief of Staff Rahm Israel Emanuel, born with dual American-Israeli nationality and an Israeli Defense Forces civilian volunteer during the 1991 Gulf War.
IT’S doubtful he’s capable of impartiality on the Israel-Palestine conflict given that his father Benjamin was in the Irgun and saw fit to name his son after a fallen member of the Stern Gang. Judging by a quote in an Israeli daily, this former member of a terrorist organization must be proud of his offspring.
“Obviously, he will influence the president to be pro-Israel,” he said. “Why shouldn’t he do it? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floor of the White House”.
Needless to say, Rahm Emanuel is a friend to AIPAC and may well have a “to do” list on its behalf. There is speculation that Rahm’s appointment was Obama’s thank you gift to this powerful pro-Israel lobby. For people here, the fact that the new incumbent sees fit to surround himself with unsuccessful old guard such as Dennis Ross, co-founder of the pro-Israel think tank the Washington Institute for Near East policy, and Clinton’s former secretary of state the hard-headed, hard-hearted Madeleine Albright who thought the death of half-a-million Iraqi children due to US-led sanctions was worth it.
At the moment the tendency here is to make excuses for Obama. People who disapprove of his new best friends as well as his self-alienation from the Palestinian issues he once claimed to support tend to think, ‘Oh well! What can he do? He has no choice but to show goodwill to the overwhelmingly pro-Israel Congress and country if he wants to have any chance of succeeding”. Even if there is credence to this view, Obama should be careful not to go overboard. If he really plans to change the world, as he says, he will require the cooperation of many more countries besides Israel. Middle East leaders are currently welcoming his election and giving him the benefit of the doubt. This is the honeymoon but like all of them it won’t last forever.
You may have noticed, too, that Obama’s rhetoric on Iran has hardened. From declaring his desire to talk to America’s enemies, including Iran, without preconditions, he is now issuing demands and couched threats which dampen bilateral US-Iran dialogue before it even begins. The Iranian government, which initially sent a congratulatory message to Obama, has admonished his hard-line approach as the same “erroneous US policy of the past”.
At a time when Obama’s Cabinet is still under wraps, one can only speculate as to the shape and color of his administration vis-à-vis the Arab world. But unlike those who view him as a cross between Gandhi, Mandela and Mother Teresa — a principled, selfless soul dedicated to pouring balm on ordinary people’s wounds — in my eyes he is human, all too human. Indeed, fans raising him on to a pedestal are doing him a disservice. When you’re adored at the very top, there’s only one way to go and that’s down simply because no one has ever worked out how to please all of the people, all of the time.
On election night, President-elect Obama looked satisfied but grave when hearing the news of his win. So much now lies on his shoulders, including all the mess a tearful George W. Bush leaves behind. But even heavier are his devotees’ impossibly high expectations.
Obama may be blessed with intelligence, personal charm and a captivating fluency of tongue but, in essence, he’s just a man with a tough job ahead. We should be hopeful. We should be patient. But we shouldn’t naively wait in vain for President Obama to perform life-altering miracles for even if he were so-inclined he would first have to change America’s ingrained body politic — a miracle in itself.
