Obama's pick for White House chief unsettles Arabs

[Montag]

Obama's pick for White House chief unsettles Arabs
Wed Nov 12, 2008

By Alistair Lyon
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsO...dChannel=10112

excerpt:


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Barack Obama's election as U.S. president cheered many Arabs and Iranians driven to anger or despair by George W. Bush's policies over the past eight years.

But Obama's choice of Rahm Emanuel, a combative, pro-Israeli political operator, as his White House chief of staff splashed cold water on some who hoped the next U.S. leader would be more even-handed and sensitive in grappling with the Middle East.

"For millions of Arabs who expressed jubilance at the monumental victory of Obama, (Emanuel's) appointment has put a damper on a short-lived fiesta," wrote Jordan-based commentator Osama al-Sharif in Saudi Arabia's Arab News on Wednesday.

In another common view, Morocco's leading Arabic-language newspaper al Massa said Emanuel's powerful new job indicated the "lengthy arm of Israeli clout inside the Obama administration."

Iran's hardline English-language Kayhan International also homed in on Emanuel, describing the Illinois Congressman as a "Zionist with deep-seated family ties to Israel."

It said that while Obama had said he favored dialogue, he had also advocated tougher sanctions over Iran's nuclear program and, like Bush, had not ruled out military action.

"The challenge for Obama is to show the world whether he is really ready to offer Tehran a grand bargain rather than a big bang," the Iranian newspaper declared on Sunday.

Emanuel has a record of hawkish pro-Israeli positions, combined with support for U.S.-led peacemaking -- he helped arrange the White House lawn signing of the 1993 Oslo accords -- but not all Israelis are delighted with his appointment.

"The guy is very close to the left and I'm more afraid of him than Obama," said Shmuel Sandler, an Israeli political scientist at Bar Ilan University, referring to the possibility of U.S. pressure on Israel to make concessions to Palestinians.

INCENDIARY REMARKS

But Maariv newspaper last week described Emanuel as "our man in the White House" in an article that quoted his father as saying his son would obviously influence Obama to be pro-Israel.

"What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House," Benjamin Emanuel told the Israeli daily.

Rahm Emanuel himself said Obama did not require his influence to orient his policy toward Israel.

"When it comes to Israel's security and America's partnership with Israel, President-elect Obama doesn't need Rahm Emanuel. President-elect Obama's commitment to Israel is steadfast and unwavering," he told Reuters.

His father's reported remarks outraged Arabs and others, but Shibley Telhami, a political science professor at the University of Maryland and a senior fellow at the Saban Centre of the Brookings Institution, said the reaction was beside the point.

"Judge the guy by what he is and how he has behaved, not by his background, or his father or his history," Telhami told Reuters in Washington. "I am an Arab American. I don't want to be judged by my ethnicity, but by what I do and say."

[Greta]

When aren't the Arabs outraged by something? I think it's part of the culture.