Obama goes to Egypt

My first impressions of Obama’s speech in Egypt were all very positive, but first, Obama’s unique opportunity. The most compelling aspect about Obama is not his ideas, not even his incredible oratory style, but who he is- a black man with the middle name Hussein. Obama’s election reaffirmed the undeniable strength of America, its pluralistic nature and social mobility. America is by no means perfect, but in no European country could a black man with an Arabic middle name have any political career, much less win the presidency. It is these characteristics, and the stark contrast in personality from Bush, that give Obama a shot at solving longstanding Arab conflicts.
Obama has cautiously extended his hand to the Arab world, a broadly accepted policy. Republicans feared that Obama’s apologetic tendencies would surface again, in the worst place they could, the heart of the Middle East. Shockingly, Obama did not throw Bush under the bus, at least not completely. Obama skillfully danced around the Iran issue, never condemning their nuclear ambitions only reiterating a need for a nuclear free world. A world that is as likely as the Washington Nationals winning a World Series, it just won’t happen. Although not addressing Iran’s brass pursuit of nuclear weapons he took a well deserved shot at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying “Holocaust denial as “baseless, ignorant, and hateful”.
So Obama, always the idealist, loses points on the Iran issue. When he slipped up with ambiguous Iran talk, he picked up points when talking about Israel. He and Senator Clinton came down hard on both parties perpetuating the conflict, Arab militants in Gaza, like Hamas, and Israel settlements encouraged by the state. On the topic of Hamas Obama was tough saying, “it is a sign of neither courage nor power to shoot rockets at sleeping children, or to blow up old women on a bus”; insisted that “the Arab-Israeli conflict should no longer be used to distract the people of Arab nations from other problems.” (Note: all those quotes were extracted from Obama’s speech by Rich Lowry in his most recent article, got to give the man his credit).
Now to put two and two together: Obama, because of the color of his skin and his genuine connection/familiarity with Islam has the Arab world’s attention, something no white President, not Bill Clinton nor George Bush has had. Let’s face it, the messenger matters. Both Clinton and Bush towards the end of their terms invested significant time, effort, and money trying to solve the Israel-Palestine debate. The situation in Gaza is worse than ever. Obama might say the same things as Clinton and Bush did, but saying it to a receptive crowd makes all the difference. To further this point, George W Bush constantly said that we are not at war with Islam the religion, for whatever reason this was insincere. When Obama say’s the same thing, it’s turning the page, a new vision. I’m not interested in why this is; only that people are now listening. Republicans should be willing to bite the bullet about Bush’s legacy for now, especially in the name of national security and the Middle East.