The warm and friendly visit of US President Barack Obama to Israel was bound to
lead to criticism from the Muslim world, which has long accused the US of
favoring Israel.
Arabs see the visit as a reversal of Obama’s initial
attitude upon beginning his first term in 2009 and his famous outreach to the
Muslim world, symbolized by his speech in Cairo that same year. Arabs held out
hope that the president would rebalance American foreign policy, long seen as
slanted and detrimental to the Palestinian position.
Click here for full JPost coverage of Obama's visit to Israel
The Obama visit to
Israel has so far been filled with effusive rhetoric, small talk in English
between the president and Israeli leaders and other acts of closeness between
the two countries, leading to a reaffirmation of the Arab world’s perception of
US policy as being biased toward Israel.
The editorial in Thursday’s
London daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi stated that Obama did not come with a plan to
solve the conflict and that in any case the peace process is dead.
“The
peace process led by the United States over the past twenty years died,” the
piece declared, going on to say that he came “to refute accusations that he is
against Israel” and that the focus of the visit would be the Iran and Syria
issues.
Jerusalem-based Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds stated in its
editorial on Thursday that it is not yet known what Obama will say to
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, but “the sounds and images of the
visiting president certainly removed all doubt.”
The article went on to
mention that Obama’s words gave into Israel’s narrative and positions, and in
particular, his statements regarding Iran effectively gave a green light for an
Israeli attack. But the piece added that it was not such a disappointment for
the Palestinians because nothing was expected from the visit in any
case.
An editorial in the Lebanese Daily Star on Thursday echoed the
pessimistic view of Obama’s visit, saying that the result will bring Palestinian
anger to a whole new level.
The editorial stated that Obama gave “his
country’s full support for the Israelis on several fronts,” adding that “the
Palestinians will treat their guest with the sounds of dance, while Israeli
bulldozers continue to illegally claim even more Palestinian land for
settlements.”
Though Obama will be sure to reassure Palestinians,
“Wednesday’s salvo of support for Israel has already drowned out such rhetoric,
rendering it pointless.” Hence, the visit “is managing to take despair and
outrage by Palestinians and Arabs to an entirely new level.”
Some of the
regional media focused on how Obama’s trip and words were meant to be a message
to Iran, thus seeming to reinforce his past rhetoric that “all options are on
the table,” a message that was not entirely believed by many in the
region.
As if to respond to Obama’s visit, Iranian supreme leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran would destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel
attacked Iran.
The Iranian Mehr News website reported Obama’s comment
that “all options are on the table,” stating, “The United States, Israel and
some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing noncivilian
objectives in its nuclear energy program and have used the unfounded accusation
as a pretext to impose illegal sanctions on the Islamic Republic and to call for
an attack on the country.”
The Israeli Arab paper Kul al-Arab summed up
the general Arab opinion in an article on Wednesday stating that US policy is
known to be “completely biased,” and does not do anything to stop Israeli
settlement expansion.