Where Bush is equal to Kerry

For a region that impacts so much on US foreign policy and aspects of domestic well-being, the Middle East is surprisingly uninterested in t...

For a region that impacts so much on US foreign policy and aspects of domestic well-being, the Middle East is surprisingly uninterested in the American presidential election. This is because most Middle Easterners see no difference between John Kerry and George W. Bush on the key issues that matter to them, mainly Palestine-Israel and Iraq…

The two main US presidential candidates’ views on Mideast issues reveal no deep differences, other than in tone and emphasis. Consequently, the average Arab or Middle Eastern person following the US presidential campaigns hears four distinct messages from Kerry and Bush: 1. The issues of the Middle East

as a whole are of low concern to the United States, and are only to be addressed through the prism of American needs rather than the mutual rights of Middle Easterners and Americans…

2. Israelis have greater national and personal rights, and higher priority attention, than Palestinians and other Arabs; the suffering of Israelis is much greater than the suffering of Palestinians…

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3. The United States will continue to use its power to dictate policies to Middle Eastern governments and political groups, and will threaten or change regimes as deemed appropriate, regardless of international law, global public opinion, or the rights or wishes of the people of the Middle East themselves.

4. The prism through which the US makes Mideast policy is exclusively the “war on terror,” which bolsters autocratic Arab regimes that market themselves successfully to the current American military mindset…

Most Middle Easterners judge US behavior in this region largely through the lens of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Washington’s severe and worsening tilt toward Israel helps explain why the US has had such a hard time winning public support on other key regional issues, including Iraq and reform. No wonder, that most Middle Easterners dismiss the American presidential race as meaningless or even harmful to them, while Israel is one of the few countries in the world where public opinion prefers a Bush victory.

Excerpted from an article by Rami G. Khouri on October 20, in Lebanon’s The Daily Star