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Waiting for Obama
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Why hasn't the US
president sat down for an interview with a single Arab journalist since 2009?
Last
updated: 17 Dec 2014 09:30
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It's peculiar that the US
president has more say about the death of an Arab than the life of an
American, and yet despite all the Middle East turmoil, he has not sat down
for an interview with an Arab journalist since 2009.
This is especially
strange because President Obama did make the time - and the point - during
his first week in office to sit down with a journalist from Al-Arabiya
channel and promised "more to come".
Alas, that turned out to
be the last time he would grant a one-on-one interview with Arab
journalists.
After his famous Cairo
speech to the Muslim world a few months later, the president sat down with
half a dozen journalists from Israel, Indonesia and the Arab world, but it
lasted for no more than half an hour, because as he told his audience,
he wanted to see the pyramids.
Over the last several
weeks, I spoke
to a dozen national and
foreign Washington correspondents and a couple of former spokespersons to try
and find out why the commander-in-speech had gone silent while his
predecessor, George W Bush granted six interviews to just one Arab TV
network.
Most were shocked but not
surprised by the record, even though the Middle East, which comprises five
percent of the world population, makes up perhaps as high as a third of its
heated conflicts with a direct or indirect role for the US in most.
I was given all sorts of
excuses: The White House grants interviews only when it suits the president's
agenda; or when he has a particular message to convey to a designated
audience. And that he didn't do much in the way of talking to the
media anyway.
I was reminded that other
members of the Obama administration did indeed grant interviews to Arab
media; that President Obama has addressed the Arabs and notably the
youth on a number of occasions. And besides, the Middle East is a terrible
mess, as one recalled rather sardonically, why expect the president to want
to say anything at all.
These
might be rational explanations, but they're not sufficient to explain why the
president hasn't been communicating with the Arab media during these dark and
uncertain times. By that I don't mean talking at the Arab and
Muslim worlds from distant podiums, I mean talking to them and answering
their questions.
Just
this past week, the media witnessed a surge of Obama interviews from comedy
to sports to Hispanic channels, but not to an outlet from the Arab and Muslim
worlds.
Could
this travesty of public diplomacy be explained by those perverse inversions
of American politics? The bizarre dance, in which only the right dares to
jump left and only the left dares to shuffle right. Bush could talk to the
"A-rabs" without anyone doubting that he was a "bombs
away", "hang 'em high", sorta guy. No matter how many drones
Obama sends east, a large segment of the American public will consider him
soft on killing, and if he's seen talking to "them", it would be
more evidence of his secret Muslimness.
It also
might be that if Obama does settle on an agenda it will blow up in his
face. Unlike his predecessor, who seemed to become more certain the more
reality revealed that he was wrong, Obama loses the courage of his
convictions once they turn out to be embarrassing misjudgements, so he may
have concluded that the less he says the better off he is.
Be that
as it may, contrary to what I heard in the capital, the White House
record shows that President Obama is anything but indifferent to the press.
He did almost 800 sit-downs with journalists since taking office - many of
these with foreign media and a few went beyond soft-balling the president.
But
frankly speaking, and considering America's heavy military and
diplomatic involvement there, it's unfair to compare the greater Middle
East with any other region.
As the
Obama administration intensifies US air strike and deepens the
US' military involvement in the region, President Obama has a
moral responsibility to talk to the nations at the receiving end of
American power.
For
example, as the commander-in-chief, Obama needs to clarify the
objectives and duration of the ongoing US military operations in Syria and
Iraq and the reasons why he secretly signed the order to expand American
military operations in Afghanistan in 2015 to include fighting the
Taliban.
Like
many in the region, I am puzzled by the president's claim that US foreign
policy is driven by the principle "right makes might",
and I would love to hear a few answers regarding the specifics of how US
military deployments square with his vision.
The
president has rightly insisted on more than a few occasions that military
solutions are not sufficient to deal with the threat of extremism and
terrorism which implies, among other things, the need to win "hearts and
minds".
That
requires direct communication with the most fragile and alienated elements of
the Arab and Muslims societies that are prone to extremism.
If the
president truly believes America is a force of good even when it acts poorly;
that America's objectives are to help the helpless minorities, to mediate
peace, and to empower those who root for democratic and prosperous societies
in Arab and Muslim lands, then all he needs to do is answer the questions on
people's minds.
Sound
bites are no alternative to sound policies, but ending the radio silence and
reaching out to the peoples of the region could at least answer the question
about indifference.
Just
days after his party lost the midterm elections, President Obama said: "There
are times, there's no doubt about it, where, you know I think we have not
been successful in going out there and letting people know what it is that
we're trying to do and why this is the right direction."
Spot
on. But, guess what? This lesson is as relevant in foreign affairs as it is
in domestic affairs.
True,
the Arabs don't vote in the US elections, but the Middle East seems to
have as much effect on the political mood in America as the Midwest.
Marwan
Bishara is Al Jazeera's senior political analyst and author of The
Invisible Arab.
Follow
him on Twitter: @MarwanBishara
The
views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily
reflect Al Jazeera's editorial policy.
copy http://www.aljazeera.com/
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