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![]() Palestinians see Obama as agent of change
Many find hope for a new U.S. approach to the region in the Democratic candidate?s politics and heritage
JERUSALEM -- With Barack Obama touring the Middle East and leading in the polls ahead of the U.S. presidential election this fall, many Palestinians are beginning to hope that the Democratic candidate might really represent change they can believe in. And some Israelis are starting to fear exactly the same thing.
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Wednesday, July 23,2008 04:26 | |||||||
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JERUSALEM -- With Barack Obama touring the Middle East and leading in the polls ahead of the U.S. presidential election this fall, many Palestinians are beginning to hope that the Democratic candidate might really represent change they can believe in. And some Israelis are starting to fear exactly the same thing. Mr. Obama arrived in Several cars were crushed and 16 Israelis were injured before the driver - a 22-year-old resident of Mr. Obama quickly issued a condemnation of the attack and said he would "always support Much of Mr. Obama"s whirlwind trip to the But unlike Mr. McCain, who visited the region in March, Mr. Obama will also make a trip to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Obama told a press conference in "What I think can change is the ability of the United States government and a United States president to be actively engaged with the peace process and to be concerned and recognize the legitimate difficulties that the Palestinian people are experiencing right now." Such talk has already made a fan out of 27-year-old Omar Jibril, who, in his Ramallah apartment on Thursday evenings, gathers with a small group of friends informally known as the Barack Obama Fan Club. They swap articles they"ve come across on the Internet about their political hero, debate how the campaign is going, and dream about how much better their world will become if Mr. Obama wins the presidency. "People are usually worried when a change is taking place, but this time people are optimistic because of the coming of Obama," Mr. Jibril said. "People will be so happy if he becomes president. Palestinians are desperate after eight years under George Bush." Part of the appeal, Mr. Jibril says, is the belief that Mr. Obama - as a black American - will empathize with the plight of the 3.7 million Palestinians who have been living under Israeli military occupation for the past four decades. That his middle name is Hussein - a fact that spawned Internet rumours falsely claiming that Mr. Obama is a Muslim - and that he spent part of his childhood in It"s not just the Ramallah fan club. Palestinian political commentators have been effusive in their praise for the Democratic nominee and Mr. Obama has even won the unwelcome endorsement of the militant Hamas movement, which controls the Gaza Strip and is branded a "terrorist" organization by the U.S. State Department. "I"m 100-per-cent sure that American policy will be totally different [if Mr. Obama wins the presidency]. Maybe not perfectly even-handed, but different. Obama will be fair to us," Ahmed Yousef, an adviser to Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, told The Globe and Mail recently. The Mr. Obama has already gotten a taste of how treacherous the That misstep, along with Mr. Obama"s stated willingness to negotiate directly with "We are concerned," said Jeff Daube, director of the Among those travelling to Hillel Shenker, vice-president of the On the other hand, he said, Mr. Obama could prove to be the real friend of Israel if he used the warm reception he received in the Arab world to help bring a final peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians. "For the foreseeable future, every American president will retain a commitment to But Mr. Obama himself was careful to play down such expectations yesterday. "It"s unrealistic to expect that a
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Posted in Reports , Palestine , Obama |
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