Obama's many broken promises in the Middle East.

by:  Sami Jamil Jadallah

When President Obama ran for office, America and the world looked for and prayed for change, a change that never came at least to the Middle East. It did not come to Iraq, did not come to Afghanistan, and certainly did not come to the Middle East conflict.  President Obama's speech in Cairo was full of promise and hope, a promise that remained unfulfilled and a hope that vanished quickly.  Obama's" wishy washy" management of Egypt "people's revolution" showed the Arab and Muslim world that America is America, the world change but America will not change.

Millions of people took to the streets of Cairo, Alexandria, Suez, Elmansoura and many towns demanding the ouster of a failed, corrupt and criminal regime of Hosni Mubarak and America was at lost in what to do. No one expects and no one wants America to intervene on either side of the conflict, but every one wants and expects America to stand by its ideals and commitments to democracy and freedom, even if this democracy and freedom applies to the Arabs and Middle East.


George Bush, Hosni Mubarak, Mahmoud Abbas and Israel all conspired to abort and render null and void the only free, open and closely monitored election in the Middle East, the one that took place in the Occupied Palestinian territories where Hamas won the election hand down over corrupt, incompetent and inept Fatah.
President Obama had every opportunity to make things right. He had the opportunity of not to continue US "veto" of the Mecca Accord between Hamas and Fatah. The "reconciliation agreement" engineered by Omar Suleiman was designed to fail to keep Hamas and Gaza under siege. Every one should remember the role played by Mubarak and Suleiman for facilitating from Egypt large shipments of arms, armored carriers and millions of dollars going to Gaza to Fatah strong man Mohamed Dahlan with the idea of putting Hamas out of business once and for all.  Fatah army of thugs disappeared and evaporated as Egypt police did during the early days of Egypt "people revolution".

Source: http://palestinenote.com/blogs/blogs/archive/2011/02/09/obama-s-many-broken-promises-in-the-middle-east.aspx
President Obama had the chance after the criminal war on Gaza where thousands killed by American bombs, and planes to do the right thing, to end the illegal and criminal siege of Gaza. He missed the opportunity and be worthy of his Noble Peace Prize, to be a world hero he was when elected, and a world leader not only demanding but also making sure the siege of Gaza comes to an end. Instead he chose to follow the advice of Mubarak, Suleiman and Abbas finding many excuses in keeping the 1.5 people in Gaza under siege, and locked up in the prison called Gaza.

The people know America's Obama can end the siege of Gaza, but could not end the Israeli Occupation that lasted 44 years. The Arabs know that America's Obama or Clinton or Bush does not have what it takes to end the Israeli Occupation, since Israel and its Occupation are domestic issues, the prerogative of the American Jewish Lobby but not the prerogative of any American administration. And the talks of solving the Arab-Israeli conflict, as a strategic interest is nothing but empty talks, nonsense.

The US continued to support dictatorial corrupt and criminal regimes in the Middle East like Bin Ali's Tunis and Hosni Mubarak Egypt. The most powerful intelligence organization (CIA) in the world with a budget in the tens of billions of dollars failed to forecast or anticipate the Jasmine Revolution and failed to anticipate the frustration and anger in the streets of Egypt and Tunisia and once again proved to be the most "unintelligent" intelligence agency in the world.
The Obama Administration simply failed to tell the Arab people and governments it supports in words and actions and without reservation the people including the Palestinians, right to freedom, liberty and democracy. Freedom from a police and " mokhabarat" state, freedom for the people to organize, demonstrate, associate, and elect their own representatives and freedom to have accountable, transparent government of the people for the people and freedom from the 99% votes for the sitting president and ruling party.

For over 2 weeks since the start of the Egyptian Revolution, nothing but double talk, nothing but gray language coming out of the White House, State and Defense Department.   Of course there should be no foreign intervention in the affairs of Egypt, but the US should make it clear to Mubarak and his government, that it respect and support the people's right and demands for freedom, liberty, accountable transparent and freely elected government, and does not support lifetime presidency, does not support corruption and violation of human and civil rights of the people. The message to the people of Egypt, to Mubarak, to the Arab people and their governments must be clear the people come first.

Sami Jamil Jadallah
www.jeffersoncorner.com