For Palestinians, Obama is No Better Than the Rest: Le Quotidien-Oran, Algeria

As we’ve seen over the past week, the global reaction to Barack Obama’s world tour has been largely positive – if not at times skeptical. But particularly in the Arab world – disappointment is the dominant theme.

Writing for Le Quotidien-Oran of Algeria, K. Selim focuses in on Obama’s 45-minute visit to the Palestinians, and the conclusions many Arabs are drawing from it.

Describing the deflated hopes of the Palestinians, Selim writes in part:

“Anxious to forge an international image, the mixed-race candidate – courageously we were told – decided to visit the President of the Authority. And it was even expected that after their discussion, a luncheon was to be offered by President Abbas. The Authority had in mind “putting small dishes into the larger ones” (A French expression meaning preparing a grand meal), no doubt anxious, for once, to dine on something other than illusions and receive the potential future president of the United States with dignity. Alas, Barack Obama canceled the culinary portion of the meeting and rushed back to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where, doubtless, the electoral kitchen is more nutritious.”

Summing up the widely held view on the Arab street, Selim concludes:

“Democrat or Republican, Black, White or mixed race, man or woman, U.S. officials are implementers of a Middle East policy that constitutes the basis of their international relations. That policy, which is based on the dispossession of the Palestinians, is that of the military-industrial complex – at the heart of which the Zionist lobby plays a major role. … The Palestinians know that freedom isn’t something to be granted by the United States – that grand patron of the last colonial state [Israel], and that the only realistic course of action is that of resistance.”

By K. Selim

Translated By Nicolas Dagher

July 26, 2008

Algeria – Le Quotidian d’Oran – Original Article (French)

Barack Obama spent three-quarters if an hour in Ramallah at the headquarters of what is politely called the Palestinian “Authority.” Politely, because indeed, one wonders what this specialized administrative structure has even the slightest bit of authority over. Nevertheless, as we have often repeated, in that region of the world so steeped in history, symbols have more power than they do in other places. This symbolic authority is what Westerners – who have self-designated themselves with the pithy title “international community”- consider to be the representative of the Palestinian people.

Anxious to forge an international image, the mixed-race candidate – courageously we were told – decided to visit the President of the Authority. And it was even expected that after their discussion, a luncheon was to be offered by President Abbas. The Authority had in mind “putting small dishes into the larger ones” (A French expression meaning preparing a grand meal), no doubt anxious, for once, to dine on something other than illusions and receive the potential future president of the United States with dignity. Alas, Barack Obama cancelled the culinary portion of the meeting and rushed back to the King David Hotel in Jerusalem where, doubtless, the electoral kitchen is more nutritious.

READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the U.S. election.