John Kerry, the Arabs' Candidate as Well
Mahmoud Rimawi Al-Hayat 2004/09/14
A survey, conducted in 35 countries all over the world, have shown that citizens of 30 countries prefer the Democratic candidate, Kerry, over the Republican candidate and the current president George W. Bush… Maybe this survey, where citizens of certain countries were asked to give their opinions about the candidates for the presidency of another country, is the first of its kind.
The idea is really interesting; as long as the United States turns its back on the United Nations and ignores the sovereignty of other countries at a time when military and intelligence efforts have dominated the U.S. foreign policy, the fact that other world citizens, even governmental and non-governmental organizations, should be asked to express their opinions about their favorite candidate for U.S. presidency, and hence world presidency, becomes only evident. Furthermore, such a step may be useful, since it delivers important messages to the candidates as well as to the American public only few weeks before the elections, and clarifies the rest of the world's vision about who is more fit to bring peace to the whole six continents and not only to North America.
The survey conducted by an international research company and the University of Maryland revealed that Kerry is a favorite, especially in countries that are traditional allies of the U.S. The Arab countries, however, were not included in the surveys; no one can really foretell what the result would have been. On one hand, Bush is not at all popular in all the Arab countries (except maybe one) while on the other, Kerry might be either unknown to the Arab public or not a very trusted figure due to his pro-Israeli positions, which are almost identical to the Republican views, but have been outshined by his relatively better positions on the Iraqi issue. This is while the "chronic" third candidate Ralph Nader is almost completely unknown, except in his original country Lebanon and to some elites here and there. The survey seems to have left him out.
In the United States, the Arab-American majority (63%) supports Kerry, while a little less than 20% support Bush and 15% support Nader. These percentages are variable and adjustable for several reasons based on either personal convictions or internal U.S. issues. However, the numbers have not changed a lot for the past year, something, which means the withdrawal of support to Bush who previously gained a majority of the Arab American's community input in the 2000 elections for several reasons. One is that he was thought to be like his father who, despite his support for Israel, was able to keep his promises and bring the Israelis to the negotiation tables and launch a set of peace initiatives. Another reason was the common conviction that the Republican Party is more nationalistic than the Democratic Party who is more willing to support Israel on the basis of the liberal and libertarian principles of the latter. A third reason is that Al Gore, Bush's rival then, did not demonstrate interest in foreign policy, like Clinton the President at the time.
Now, that Bush and his administration have revealed their hostile policies to the extent of allowing Sharon to massacre Palestinians and take control of 58% of the West Bank, and after the bloody policy in Iraq, and the pressures that Arab-Americans have to endure daily, it has become clear that Bush must be brought down to reassure the Arab community's (and a big part of the Islamic community too) political rights and to reorganize its efforts and its organizations and associations. Arab Americans voices must become more evident and clear while they wait for Arab-American institutions to become intelligently active in the last quarter of the election campaigns, especially after the U.S. has become deeply involved with our region's issues, and is promising to do more according to Bush's visions.
In light of all the facts and all the developments we are anticipating in case Bush remains in the White House, Arabs must move individually or in groups; their voices must assert that our region has become less safe under the Bush regime and that his war on terror is nothing more than a bloody and destructive battle between too very similar extremists, extremists who divide the world between two sides. The Arab voices must assert that Arabs' money and lives are being made the fuel of this battle, where each side's extremism is being nourished by the other's extremism; all of this while the Arab world is becoming a victim of internal threats and even more vicious external ones.
Finally, while struggling against extremism in its internal reflections, we must warn against the Conservative Republicans stay in control of the greatest country's command just like other citizens of the world have done in the survey despite them not being made a victim of wars and blatant intrusions like in the case of the Arab world. And since John Kerry is the only practical substitute, and a candidate open to discussion unlike Bush and his staff, its not an exaggeration or even unusual for us to express our favoring of Kerry for president without disregarding points on which we disagree on, especially that Sharon's government has been communicating with that candidate in an attempt to strengthen its relationship with him and his aids for months now. Why do Arabs express a lack of interest and care in connection with a chance that might affect them in a direct and long term way?
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