An Arab View of Obama's Visit to Israel

Hat tip Israpundit, Doc's Talk and Jblog

Abdel Bari Atwan is the editor in chief  of Al Quds (Jerusalem in Arabic) Alarabi Newspaper, a pan-Arab paper based in London. He has written a scathing op-ed on President Obama's visit to Israel.

http://www.bariatwan.com/english/?p=1486

Remarkable.

First of all, I will dispense with Mr Atwan's sense of betrayal. What is really interesting is his lack of knowledge of even the more important phases of American history as well as his own errors in describing our president's heritage and the lives of his ancestors.

"Obama used to speak about the humiliating racial segregation his grandparents and other relatives faced in Chicago when they were banned from sitting with white people on buses."

Really? First of all, the only grandparents Obama had in the US were white (on his mother's side) , never lived in Chicago, and certainly never were banned from sitting anywhere on any buses they may have ridden on. Further, I seriously doubt that buses in Chicago were segregated during the time of Obama's grandparents-or any other time. Even further, until Obama himself lived in Chicago, married and had children there, he had no other African or African-American  relatives either living in Chicago or being banned from sitting with white people anywhere else. (He has a Kenyan  aunt still living in Boston-illegally, I might add.)

"How can an American president of African origin demand this of us, after his grandparents’ generation stood up to racial discrimination and sacrificed martyrs to this noble cause: putting an end to slavery and racism?"

I assume the writer is referring to Obama's grandparents on his mother's side and their generation. More accurately, perhaps, he should have referred to the mother's generation, but no matter. Neither generation ended slavery, Mr Atwan. That happened in 1865 as a result of the Civil War.  

"America’s long line of caucasian presidents never stooped this low; most of them pressured Israel to some degree to recognise the rights of the Palestinian people. Why is Obama be so keen to fawn at Netanyahu’s feet begging for forgiveness? Netanyahu who insulted him so grievously by overtly backing Republican Mitt Romney in November's presidential race."

While nobody would blame Netanyahu for hoping for a Romney win, I don't where he overtly supported him. And why is the writer again bringing up Obama's race after first comparing him to Uncle Tom? What does it matter what previous Caucasian presidents did vis-a-vis Israel? It is pretty obvious that Obama is concerned about the Palestinians. What seems to offend the writer is that Obama has expressed support for Israel's right to survive as a Jewish state.

"Obama did not come to the region as a man of peace but as a war monger. He came to light the fuse of devastation, giving Israel the go-ahead to attack Iran, pledging that Tehran will never possess a nuclear weapon and declaring that Hezbollah belongs on the list of international terrorists."

Except for the reference to Hezbollah, I see no evidence of that.

"This is the age of American hypocrisy and Arab humiliation."

It is pretty clear here that Atwan wants nothing less than the end of Israel. As for Arab humiliation, they have nobody to blame but themselves. As long as they continue to blame Israel, the US and the West for their own failures including lack of freedom, backwardness, and few contributions to the world in the modern era other than bloodshed and religious hatred, they will continue to be humiliated-by themselves. 

One example is the above op-ed by Atwan, which is filled with lack of knowledge and thinly-concealed racial insults to our president.