Obama: Dreams and Reality for Arabs - Le Quotidien d'Oran of Algeria

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Seeing McCain, dove of peace grabs Obama's hand and says:

'God Have Mercy'

[Rose El-Youssef, Egypt]

Le Quotidien d’Oran, Algeria

Obama: Dreams and Reality for Arabs

"It is said that in the first few months of his presidency, America's new head of state plans an address to the Islamic world to dispel any idea of a clash of civilizations. The intention is a good one, but any speech will ring hollow as long as the Israeli lobby continues to dictate American foreign policy toward the Arab world."

By K. Selim

Translated By Elise Nussbaum

November 7, 2008

France - Le Quotidien d’Oran - Original Article (French)

Libyan ruler Muammar Qadhafi comments on U.S. democracy and 'Kenyan brother' Barack Obama, and says Obama suffers from an inferiority complex that might make him behave 'Whiter Than the White, June 11.

Al-Jazeera TV, Qatar: Qadhafi warns that Obama Suffers Inferiority Complex That Might Make Him Behave 'Whiter Than the White,' June 11, 00:07:43

Barack Obama was elected emphatically, but he won't take office until January 2009. The Obamania sweeping the world still has a few weeks ahead of it. And without doubt, it is bound to grow. There is little room for reserved and even prudent voices in the face of a passion made planetary by the Internet and media.

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

That is, while we await the effective exercise of power, symbols take on ever-greater significance. And in this election, there has been a kind of overload in terms of symbols. A Black president, when racism was legal in certain American states in the 1960s! What progress! Has the long civil rights struggle of Martin Luther King finally reached its culmination?

But if we take note of the undeniable progress that such an election represents, we must not forget that Blacks, who constitute only 15 percent of the population, represent no less than 40 percent of the prison population. The post-racial society that has been celebrated with such enthusiasm by some columnists has yet to materialize in the real world. Nothing could be harder.

It nevertheless remains true that a genuine taboo has fallen with this election. American society and much of the establishment were ready after the humiliations inflicted on the United States by ideologues and militaristic neoconservatives. Americans had to choose between possible progress and certain immobilization, and they have chosen to move forward. They preferred the young to the old and hope for change rather than more Bush without Bush. For the American establishment, Obama offers a formidable opportunity to burnish the very tarnished image of the United States. Seen from our Arab and African lands, Obama is the least bad choice when compared to his opponent.

But we should stop there and observe things with prudence. We must wait for the euphoria to pass and the time for action to arrive. All evidence suggests that the lines of force in the American system will impose themselves and the best we can hope for is that Obama will take account of the disastrous failures of his predecessor.

It is said that in the first few months of his presidency, America's new head of state plans an address to the Islamic world to dispel any idea of a clash of civilizations. The intention is a good one, but any speech will ring hollow as long as the Israeli lobby continues to dictate American foreign policy toward the Arab world. It's difficult to forget Obama's speech to AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], when he practically pledged allegiance on the very day he won the Democratic Party nomination. In this act of allegiance, one could take the measure of a system in which the Zionist lobby is very powerful. Another reason not to succumb to Obamania.

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