By Sara Khorshid
CAIRO: In 2010, I attended a press briefing at the US embassy in Cairo. The speaker was the Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy and Human Rights. His statements fell on my ears unglamorosly as he echoed President Barack Obama’s rhetoric of promoting democracy in the Middle East through supporting economic and scientific development. I told him that US aid and support in that direction would be a waste of time and resources in view of the prevalent corruption that the dictatorial regime was embracing and benefiting from. But the State Department speaker responded with the typical diplomatic line in defense of the US alliance with the Egyptian government.
Back then, the ousted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was the “stalwart ally to the United States,” as Obama once said in a 2009 BBC interview. Obama’s backing of the region’s dictators was receiving much criticism from the Middle East as well as among American experts and analysts.
Obama didn’t listen, and he went on with his stability-more-important-than-democracy policy until it was too late. Even on the night of January 25, his Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told us of her infamous “assessment … that the Egyptian government is stable,” and urged all sides to refrain from violence. Only when it became clear Mubarak was likely to go anyway that the US started to reluctantly express support for the revolution.
Ironically, as US officials started to make unsure statements against the regime’s violent suppression of protests, Mubarak’s riot police was firing US-made tear gas canisters against Tahrir Square protesters, with the “Made in USA” label urging anyone who comes in contact with the gas “to seek assistance as soon as possible,” as reported in ABCNews.com.
After all of that, we couldn’t expect Obama to suddenly present himself as the preacher of Arab democracy who is determined to support the will of the Egyptian and Arab people, which he did in his Middle East Speech on May 19.
To me, and to many Egyptians, Obama has zero credibility.
Both his statements and actions in the past two years have reinforced our belief that the US government, one administration after the other, has wanted nothing for the Arab world but US interests, from the perspective of those ruling America.
We know very well that the US, pressured by the pro-Israel lobby, wanted a stable Egypt ruled by the dictator we revolted against after years of oppression and injustice, because he supported Israel and the Obama administration with no regard for Egypt’s interests, which did not always happen to coincide with US and Israeli interests. We also know that earlier, under the Bush Administration, Americans wanted to see democracy in Egypt — until they realized that democracy could possibly bring to power rulers that could challenge America’s vision for the region.
And we know that despite Obama’s assertion that America will “respect” our stances, behind the scenes Obama will surely continue to do everything he can to ensure that no matter what Egyptians want, Israel’s interests should remain intact; no matter whether the Egyptian people want to continue to adopt their country’s peace treaty with the Jewish State or not, the Egyptian rulers will be pressured by the US to adopt it anyway.
So when Obama comes now and speaks about our fight for our rights, saying that he will respect our choices, we can’t believe him.
Some liberal Americans are pleased with the speech, because they think Obama was brave in his support for the Palestinians’ rights; and some conservatives are angry that he “threw Israel under the bus.” For many Egyptians, Obama’s words on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict didn’t even amount to stating the obvious. International law and UN resolutions do imply that Israel abide by the pre-1967 borders; and that Israeli settlement construction on Palestinian territories is, as a matter of fact, illegal. There is no way for the Israelis and the Palestinians to be both satisfied about the two issues that “remain”: “The future of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees”. What is “just and fair” can never reflect respect for “the rights and aspirations of Israelis” because Israel has never been satisfied in its 63-year-old history, and “negotiations” have never, so far, resulted in “justice and fairness” for the Palestinians.
Using the same hyperbolic-type promises, Obama said in his speech that he will help Egypt with $2 billion, failing to mention what he actually owes Egyptians — to find, freeze and return to Egyptians the US-based assets of Mubarak, his family and top aides.
As in his landmark Cairo speech in 2009, Obama talked the talk and uttered hope, and once again, in 2011, he is exaggerating about what he could do in reality, refusing to limit his promises to the magnitude of his abilities and will.
One Egyptian’s message to Obama: We don’t need your support for our democratic change, because we can achieve what we want on our own, with or without your “support”. We have toppled your ally in Egypt, and we are determined to build our country the way we, Egyptians, want it to be.
Sara Khorshid is an Egyptian journalist who has covered Egypt’s politics and society, as well as the relations between the Muslim and Western worlds, for the past nine years. Her articles are published in The Daily News Egypt, and The Guardian, Alarabiya.net, OnIslam.net, Common Ground News Service, and other media outlets. She previously held the position of managing editor for the Politics in Depth section at IslamOnline.net (now OnIslam.net). She can be reached at [email protected]
