My name is Dan and I am a student at The University of Vermont. I am currently in an Anthropology class learning about the Middle East. Our class has devoted some time focusing on the Middle East and its relationships with the United States and elsewhere so I thought your post was particularly relevant to what we have discussed. I agree with your point that President Obama’s choice to give his first Interview to Al-Arabiya opposed to Al-Jazeera can be looked upon as “pointed snub and a shrewd maneuver” towards the Arab community and I wanted to ask if you or others in the Middle East still share that opinion about Obama’s Al-Arabiya interview? When it became national news here in the US I held a similar opinion as you do in your post, that the interview is going to outrage many in the Middle East and be looked at as non-productive propaganda by the West sugarcoating its policies and image. Was there more of a surge of Anti-Americanism throughout Lebanon and the rest of the Middle East because of it? How has our president been received in your region since making the interview? In your opinion could there have been other ways to more realistically handle US/Middle Eastern Relations?

Really? So now Saudi Arabia is a ‘moderate’ country? Tell me, oh wise one, how is Saudi Arabia any different than Iran in your own moderate – radical scope (if anything, it’s worse)? Saudi doesn’t hang, behead, stone people for consumption of alcohol, sex before marriage, homosexuality etc? Saudi, unlike Iran ofcourse, has an elected parliament, head of state etc and is ofcourse not a dictatorial king/sheikh-dom whose power has existed since the country’s birth, right? Like everyone knows, unlike Iran, Saudi ofocourse does not tolerate extremism, anti-semitism and by no means is the source of all wahhabi and salafist extremism. You guys need to wake up from your little fantasy dreams to see the truth as it is, not as you make it out and paint it to suit your arguments. These people have interests, if democracy is against these interests they will willfully deny that nation of its democracy or sovereignty. America has overthrown more democracies than any other faction or nation, and has been successful in setting up only it’s own democracy. If Iran, Syria and Hezbollah are so dark and tainted, then go live in backward Saudi, or maybe you prefer the police state of mubarak? Live in segregation and fear and sexism and racism for a few years and see how you like it. Iran prior to the Iranian revolution has boosted its mortality rates due to its programs to combat rising child births – supported by all scholars there – from 6 kids per family to 2, and vaccination rates stand at 100% through free medical care. Syria is the only secular Arab country in the middle-east with a functioning social program providing citizens with free health, education, welfare and job creation. Hezbollah has filled the gap the Lebanese government has created when dealing with its citizens, from reconstruction, welfare, educaion, healthcare etc. If anything, it’s the wests sanctions and stubborn ways which have darkened the lives of the middle east, not these people. You see, in every era of hostility, it’s usually the people who are well-off who whine and moan whenever someone retaliates to an attack. The argument, as it goes, is if we don’t retaliate then maybe they won’t bother us anymore – just leave them do what they want without consequences, at least it will be less than what they would do if we do retaliate. Do you immediately see the fault in that? It looks rational, but not logical. You can bet, hardly any of you have experienced occupation and are quick to judge who darkens and who ‘colours’ lives. Go ask the residents of south lebanon, has Israel’s withdrawal from the area darkened or brightened up their lives? We’ve already asked Gaza – it’s no coincidence that the only year any faction other than the PLO wins the elections comes after Israel disengaged from Gaza unilaterally without any preconditions. It was Hamas that forced the withdrawal not Fatah negotiations. The people voted Hamas. The same group who forced Israel, for the second time in its existence, to give up land to Arabs without preconditions – the first was in south lebanon 2000. How oh how were young youths fighting to be free of occupation SERVE other governments? That’s what I fail to know. If anything, Iran has benefited Hezbollah more than Hezbollah has benefited Iran. Indeed, the effects of Hezbollah on Israel in case of a israel-iran conflict are so miniature they would hardly make a difference (a war between iran and israel would be a missile war, not a land war). The most hezbollah has done for Iran would probably be intelligence sharing and hezbollah commandos training iranians – because usually common sense dictates that the army with more practical experience in any conflict confined to a specific region – in this case hezbollah in south lebanon/northern ‘israel’ – would train the less experienced – i.e. the iranian in iran who has no idea how israelis fight, their tactics, has not adopted to the geography etc etc etc. Hezbollah, if they have the evil intentions everyone thinks they have, would overthrow the government in the blink of an eye, but they don’t and won’t. The only time Hezbollah has militarily done anything against the ruling coalition is when their military systems were to be infringed upon – despite repetitive warnings that any such acts will be met with ARMED RESISTANCE. Call it what you want, but if someone tried taking my boxing gloves in the middle of a fight they are conspiring against me, at the benefit of my opponent. Simple as.

have a good day sry for long post.

If you’re still interested in answers, please email me to mustapha@beirutspring.com

That is laughable. Middle Eastern media claims are reflections of their own cultural divisions.

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=ia&ID=IA42808

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/01/27/obama-al-arabiya-intervie_n_161451.

Borderman: Media is produced by every kind of creed and race in the United States. Do you suppose that Muslims and their governments do not dominate the media in the Middle East? “Surgical” removal of propaganda in many Middle Eastern venues would leave the reader or viewer with little or nothing.

Not to mention the fact that Israelis were consulted no doubt. Who do you think they will suggest.

If FOX News is extreme than MSNBC is exactly the same just at another end of the spectrum.