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Alquds Alarabi, UK

A Letter to Barack
Obama from a
Palestinian Citizen



By Nizar Mansour

Translated By Namir Shabibi

 19 January 2009

Edited by Louis Standish


UK - Alquds Alarabi - Original Article (Arabic)

I followed your electoral campaign and the debates between you and the other candidates for the presidency with a passion, and I was convinced that you would win.

An American friend of mine asked me whether it would be better if you or John McCain won. My response was that if she was asking who is better for the United States, then I believe that your win would, to which she responded “Why?” I responded with the following reasons:

First, you have a better vision for the United States’ economy than John McCain, and this is what the American people need right now.

Secondly, you have better political awareness than McCain: you prefer dialogue, even with those who you consider enemies of America, and this is something the Republicans are lacking since their first choice is war.

Thirdly, you have a social vision, and you believe that the world will not be better for the American people unless they are well-balanced in their dealings with the world. I finished by adding to my friend that if she was asking me who is better for us, as Arabs and Muslims, the situation is the same. If you or McCain won, U.S. foreign policy would not change. I believe that this issue is beyond the power of the U.S. president and that it was in fact settled some time ago, with no possibility for change. My evidence for this is: despite the change of U.S. leaders and the ruling party over the course of past decades, U.S. foreign policy has never changed, even towards peripheral issues.

My friend responded by telling me that I am wrong and that you, Barack, are unlike any other U.S. leader, and I wished she was right.

I am sorry to say that your stance over Israeli aggression against Gaza proved that I am right. Never has any American president had the final say concerning the means by which to deal with the Middle East, and I have begun to dogmatically believe that every elected U.S. president receives a file which tells him how to deal with the Middle East and indicate just how much restricted freedom he has, and what the uncrossable red lines are. All have come to realize that the extreme Christian Right and pro-Israeli pressure groups are the ones that steer U.S. foreign policy.

What I wanted to say to you in this letter was that I (as do most Arabs and Muslims) consider our differences to be with the U.S. government and not the American people.

How is your family? I wish your daughters grow up to be ladies that make you proud of what they do. This is what all Gazan mothers wished for their children, their children that are killed every day by the Israeli Army, the same Army you equated with its victims.

Do you really believe that a missile built in a car repair workshop is equivalent to a missile fired from an F16 jet, and do you really believe that the martyrdom of 1,000 Palestinians is equivalent to seven Israelis?

I was a friend of America, and I could not conceive of a day that I would assist al-Qaeda in attacking the United States again. But Mr. Obama, imagine that I am the friend who began to be proud of what Osama bin Laden did because every day you prove that your words on human rights and freedom end when it comes to the Arabs.

Mr. Obama, I am the friend that tells you that you have given me 1,000 reasons to wish death upon your people, and thus imagine the situation of your enemies who have no need for any more justification to kill your people. I implore you to stop giving our children any more reason to hate your people. I call on you to think of the world’s children.

For once, do not let the American people carry the burden of Israel’s sin.



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Comments

            

10 Responses to “A Letter to Barack
Obama from a
Palestinian Citizen”

  1.  Vote: Add rating 5  Subtract rating 7   vichysmores Says:
    January 20th, 2009 at 8:55 pm

    Hmmmm, I remem­ber Pales­tini­ans danc­ing in the streets hand­ing out sweet­meats and cel­e­brat­ing after 911. Do you think I REALLY care what hap­pens in Gaza?

  2.  Vote: Add rating 3  Subtract rating 0   Shari Bruun Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    My heart aches for the Pales­tin­ian peo­ple. The
    US is pass due to change it’s pol­icy in the Mid­dle
    East.
    Ground root orga­ni­za­tions are begin­ning to gain momen­tum. Hope­fully the noise will be loud enough.

  3.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 0   dedwards Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    I feel com­pas­sion for both the Pales­tini­ans and the Israeli’s. Both are chil­dren of God and both deserve a home­land and to live in peace. Slaugh­ter­ing each other is bar­baric and can­not be the answer. We Amer­i­cans need to help these peo­ple to learn to co-exist in peace. Our national secu­rity depends on it. The global com­mu­nity needs to stop cre­at­ing wars and con­flicts. We need to focus our col­lec­tive ener­gies on fight­ing the envi­ron­men­tal chal­lenges that threaten the extinc­tion or near extinc­tion of life on this planet. WAR IS SO PASSE!

  4.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 3   jmur Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 4:14 pm

    Reply to Vichysmores.…ITS EXACTLY THAT KIND OF
    INTOLERANT ATTITUDE MY FRIEND THAT HAS HATRED FOR THE USA AT AN ALL TIME HIGH. THINK HOW MUCH BETTER THE PLANET WOULD BE IF WE STOPPED THE HATRED AND THE VIOLENCE. IT HAS TO START SOMEWHERE, OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE AND BE TOLERANT OF DIFFERENT RELIGIONS AND CULTURES. A

  5.  Vote: Add rating 2  Subtract rating 2   vichysmores Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:03 pm

    Reply to jmur.
    Inter­est­ing. They dance in the street and cel­e­brate after 911. No com­ment from you. I do not cel­e­brate over the deaths in Gaza. I do not dance over the deaths in Gaza. I do not hand out treats over the deaths in Gaza. I am indif­fer­ent. How is this intel­er­ant? Please explain. And try to do so with­out yelling. Also explain why I have to be more tol­er­ant of peo­ple who want me and my chil­dren death. You want a rea­son­able dis­course on how civ­i­lized peo­ple should act? Take you head from the sand, or whereever it is stuck, and pro­vide a rea­son­able response. From your logic, I should not hate those who hate me. Sorry, pal. Wrong address.

  6.  Vote: Add rating 0  Subtract rating 0   Dave Weaver Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:05 pm

    I would not say Vichys­mores atti­tude is intol­er­ant, it just shows the think­ing by some peo­ple on both sides.

    If it was an easy prob­lem, we would have solved it a long time ago. The “all or noth­ing” atti­tude about a last­ing peace is some­thing that will keep this con­flict going no mat­ter who is president.

    Look at how close they came with the Camp David 2000 Sum­mit, that Pres­i­dent Arafat rejected. By the time they finally got around to con­tin­u­ing nego­ti­a­tions, Ehud Barak was out f office. This was the last time a Demo­c­ra­tic pres­i­dent was in office.

    The sit­u­a­tion is much worse eight years later. You have two gov­ern­ments now, Hamas & Fatah, and very lit­tle room to negotiate.

  7.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 2   vichysmores Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:07 pm

    Reply to ded­wars.
    Yours is a rea­son­able approach. How­ever, one of the par­ties is ded­i­cated to the destruc­tion of the other. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Moslem Broth­er­hood, and the rest of the reli­gious nut­cakes will only be sat­is­fied with the destruc­tiob of Israel. Takes two to talk. Ter­ror­ist do not talk. They kill. That’s all they want. They run Gaza. …

  8.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 2   vichysmores Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Reply to Dave Weaver:
    So Dvae please explain “it just shows the think­ing by some peo­ple on both sides.“
    911 teror­ist attack on the USA = Pales­tini­ans danc­ing in the streets. Israel attacks Gaza = my indif­fer­ence. Please explain how these are equal? Also, please explain, which side I am on? You are cor­rect Arafat threw peace away. Now Hamas is in Gaza, and there can be no deal­ing with ter­ror­ist. All they care about is the destruc­tion of Israel in the short term and the West in the long term

  9.  Vote: Add rating 0  Subtract rating 0   Dave Weaver Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:41 pm

    vichys­mores,

    I meant the “Do you think I REALLY care what hap­pens in Gaza?” part. I think a lot of peo­ple in Gaza do not care what hap­pens to Israel either. When both sides do not care about the other, it is hard to find a last­ing peace.

    It is not an easy prob­lem to solve, and I can­not see it get­ting any eas­ier. Hamas has its goals ( on of which is the destruc­tion of Israel ) and is not an easy orga­ni­za­tion with which to nego­ti­ate to say the least. And those goals do not lead on a path to peace.

    The peo­ple who live in Gaza , although they voted for Hamas, are bear­ing the brunt of the retal­i­a­tion for Hamas’s actions. Yes, Hamas is a ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion, ter­ror­iz­ing even Gaza res­i­dents. How­ever, Fatah was fraught with cor­rup­tion , and that lead to Hamas being elected.

    And there is the prob­lem, the peo­ple in Gaza cared more about a less cor­rupt gov­ern­ment than they cared about peace with Israel. The peo­ple in Israel care more about the rocket attacks than they do about peace in Gaza.

    Nei­ther side sees a light at the end of the tun­nel, and do not care about a final solution.

  10.  Vote: Add rating 1  Subtract rating 2   vichysmores Says:
    January 21st, 2009 at 5:57 pm

    Reply to Dave Weaver:
    Well, in this you are cor­rect. My bad. I just find the sit­u­ati­nal moral­ity that some employ on this and oth­ers to be disin­gen­u­ous in the extreme. On both sides. If only Arafat had accepted the offer at Camp David. But these are, quite hon­estly, issues that we, as Amer­i­cans, can­not under­stand, because we have not had sim­liar expe­ri­ences. men of women of good­will tend not to live long in the Mid­dle East. Ask any Pales­tini­ans, and I would bet dol­lars to dimes that part of the “peace” set­tle­ment is either the actual destruc­tion of Israel or vir­tual destruc­tion through the “right of return.” Until Pales­tini­ans, and Syr­i­ans, and Egyp­tiana, and Iraqia, and Ira­ni­ans, yadda yadda yadda, agree that Israel has a right to exist, there will be no peace.

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