Book of Judges: Obama's Cairo Speech

In the shade of the gods: Barack Obama basks in history slightly more ancient than the sort he attempted to make in Cairo. The pyramids of Giza were as good a place as any to catch a break from the din of reviews, most of them good, after his speech. (Mohamed Hamed - Pool/MENA/Getty Images)

That Barack Obama's speech would be well received around the world, and in the Middle East especially, is no surprise. That there would be some complaining about the absence of an explicit policy outline was also to be expected, though Rami Khouri, the Middle East's most astute columnist, had nailed it in his preview of the speech:

Public speeches are not good platforms for policy-making. However, they are suitable for articulating values. No offense, but nobody in the Middle East really cares about Obama's ancestors or youth years, or his views on other religions. What we care about - and what the US president should explain on this trip - is whether the US government believes that habeas corpus and the Fourth Geneva Convention, for example, apply with equal force to Arabs as well as to Israelis.

Which, as it turns out, is what Obama did--"This means first and foremost treating all people and countries equally, and according to a single standard of law and morality." In Israel, that was just what made some ears twitch with discomfort. The Jerusalem Post, true to form, stuck to old habits of blaming the victim: "Obama's moral equivalency was disconcerting," its editorial stated. "Undeniably, Palestinians have endured dislocation - but it would have been courageous of the president to say that much of this pain has been self-inflicted, thanks to 60 years of intransigence." Haaretz was, also true to form, less ideological, more clear-eyed, and more satisfied than most despite Obama's lack of policy initiatives: "Obama does not consider some more equal than others," Israel's oldest paper wrote. "The right of Israel to exist as an independent and sovereign state does not supersede that of the Palestinians. ... Because it was not only before Islam and the West, but also, perhaps mostly, before Israel, the Palestinians and the Arabs, that an opportunity for a new beginning was laid out in Cairo yesterday. ... The price of missing out will not be measured in the quality of relations with Washington, but in human lives."

In Lebanon's French daily, L'Orient Le Jour, editor Issa Goraieb found "smashing" Obama's recognition of "religious diversity" and his signling out of Lebanon's Maronites and Egypt's copts, the Middle East's two largest communities of Christians. Sabria S. Jawhar danced a jig in the in the Saudi Gazette: "For the first time ever I am beginning to sense that Israel will be held accountable for its actions and its failure to embrace the two-state solution."

I loved what Egypt's satirist Ahmed Ragad wrote in Al-Akhbar, welcoming Obama to Egypt while hoping "that he would be an acceptable apology for the Arabs and Muslims for a painful American mistake, named George W. Bush."

The more serious veins in Syria, Jordan and, of course, Iran, were also more conventionally dull.

Jordan Times: "Those were indeed soothing words coming eloquently from the mouth of US President Barack Obama in Cairo on Thursday. And of course they were comforting because they come after eight years of George W. Bush who launched his crusade on “terror” - which many interpreted as a war on Islam - in the process invading two Muslim nations." The Jordan Times liked the mentions of Palestine by name, and of Palestinian suffering as intolerable. "It is encouraging to hear such frank words, from an American president no less."

Syria Today: "[P]eace in the Middle East will require more than just another round of speeches and research papers. The Arab-Israeli conflict is more than 60 years old – is there really anything left to talk about? The way forward is clear: Israel needs to be frog-marched to the peace table and squeezed for concessions. We all know there is only one country that can do this. If Obama is unwilling to take action, all the perfectly enunciated, pretty words in the world won’t change a thing."

"Whatever Obama says about forgetting the past and starting a new phase (of relations with Iran), the first condition should be a policy change towards Israel," was the best Iran's Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati could muster in his speech to worshippers at Tehran University, as reported by Israel's ynetnews. (We'll leave untouched for now the oxymoron of "worshippers" and "university" in the same sentence).

But by far the very best comment on Obama's speech was, again, Rami Khouri's in Lebanon's Daily Star: "On Thursday in Cairo, President Barack Obama provided a combination Bible and Koran class mixed in with some American civics lessons - a touching, sincere performance that gets high marks for boldness and empathy, but nevertheless leaves a lingering hollowness in some areas," Khouri began. He summed up the good points, the recognition of grievances, the restoration of Palestinian rights from their long subservience to Israeli presumptions, the pledge to work with all democratically elected governments that respect their citizens' rights, "a possible quiet nod to Hizbullah and Hamas."

"The bad news," Khouri went on, "is that none of this is really new. Obama offered no substantive indication of whether this declaration of principles of American policy would be followed up with practical policy implementations; he continued to reflect basic contradictions and insensitivities in some aspects of American policies towards the Arab-Islamic world; and, he persisted in allowing Osama bin Laden to drive the agenda in Washington, which is obsessed with 'Islam' at the expense often of pursuing sensible policies."

Just as pertinently:

The core weakness of Obama's speech and approach was his continuing confusion between religion and politics. He eloquently spoke of the place of Islam and Muslims in American society and history and his own life story - which is impressive, but totally irrelevant. We who know and love both societies also know that Islam and America are soul brothers, a religion and a country deeply linked through values and faith. Obama wasted our time and his own in preaching on this. He would have done better to focus on the policy issues causing tensions between US policy and many Muslims. Here, we need action, not just fine rhetoric. However, it sure was nice to hear positive, sensitive, comprehensive rhetoric for a change.

It was awkward for Obama to make violent extremism the number-one issue in a list of challenges in a speech about and addressed to the Islamic world. An absolute commitment on his part to equal rights and justice as the primary issue would have been smoother. Similarly, mentioning Iran only in the context of the nuclear proliferation threat was insufficient.

[....] Washington's hard policies still smother its soft power here in the swamp. Obama's speech in diplomatic terms was more than putting lipstick on a pig; perhaps closer to putting after-shave lotion on a camel. He sought a new beginning, though, which we all badly need. So let's now put away the Bible and Koran classes, and get down to the tough business of forging better policies.

Don't hold your breath for equally impressive speeches from Tehran, Tel Aviv (or Jerusalem), or even Ramallah.

See Also:

• Obama and the Middle East: a Guide
• Obama in Cairo
• Full Text of Obama's Cairo's Speech
• Bin Laden Chatters as Obama Lands in Saudi Arabia
• Middle East Opinion on Obama's 100 Days
• How Obama Can Resolve the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict
• Cairo's Fired Muezzins, On Stage in Berlin
• Beethoven Under Barenboim's Israeli Baton in Cairo