The Blog and the Shower

I missed most of the delivery of Obama’s speech since it fell on the day before I left Syria, and I was rather preoccupied with other matters; however, one of the things I’d never thought about being shocked by in America is the glowing way people still talk about Obama, whom most Americans in the Middle East (not to mention Arabs themselves) cooled on a while ago.  I read the text of the speech later on, and there’s no doubt it was great rhetoric, with a real attempt to strike a conciliatory and cooperative tone; however, it was not greeted in the Middle East with quite the adulation that it seems to have received from American liberals.  For American readers of the blog, Global Voices is a good place to read summaries of Middle Eastern bloggers’ reactions to the speech:

A GV article charactized Egyptian bloggers’ responses:

While many praised his eloquence, charisma, intelligence and awareness
of Arab and Islamic history, more believed it was just the same talk
they had heard from other presidents but in a better wrapping. Also,
they almost all agreed they are waiting for “action” to prove the
supposed “good intentions.”

Another Global voices article also summarized other Middle Eastern bloggers’ reactions, which struck a similar tone.

Obama had a hard path to walk; if I’m impressed by any of his comments, it’s in light of the internal American political scene and the rhetoric I’ve become accustomed to from our politicians. Part of the problem, however, is that what may seem a radical admission for an American president–that Islam contributed to Western civilization, that Hamas enjoys some support among Palestinians, that Palestinians suffer from an occupation–are already glaringly and painfully obvious to someone outside of the American political context. Hearing them acknowledged may be mildly gratifying, but not as gratifying as it would be to seem them used as a basis for action.