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Osama bin-Laden riding shotgun over the U.S. elections. Wishful thinking from Al-hayat al-Jadida, a leading Palestinian newspaper (Courtesy Palestinian Media Watch -- www.pmw.org.il)
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| By Israel Insider staff and partners November 2, 2004 |
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Arabs from Cairo to Kuwait are tuning in to the U.S. presidential election with a remarkable amount of passion and fascination Tuesday, all the while saying it doesn't matter much who sits in the White House for the next four years.
One satellite station is urging Arab viewers phone in their votes for President George W. Bush or Sen. John Kerry, while others are having all night live coverages and many residents say they'll wait up for results.
Many Arabs interviewed Tuesday said they wanted Bush to lose, citing his decision to invade Iraq and perceived lack of support for the Palestinians as one that has made the Middle East more unstable.
"In the Arab world, the consensus is that the Bush tenure has made matters worse, especially for the Palestinians and the Iraqis," said an editorial in the Jordan Times. "Bush's rule has also destabilized the entire world. The war on terrorism appears not to have made a dent in organizations like al-Qaida and others like it."
Karim Diab, a 14-year-old student walking past expensive shops in Cairo's upscale Zamalek neighborhood, believed Americans will choose Bush "because they like him."
"But I don't because his campaign is against Arabs and Muslims," Diab added.
Prominent columnist Jihad al-Khazen wrote in the pan Arab daily Al-Hayat that Arabs would not be better off under either Bush or Kerry, but said people throughout the region worry about the result because "the American president exercises authority over us which our presidents don't."
Like many throughout a region adamant that U.S. policy is geared toward protecting Israel, al-Khazen said there was "no choice" between the presidential candidates for Arabs, "which makes achieving a peaceful settlement (to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict) difficult, if not impossible."
Still, Arab media outlets are closely covering the elections. Kuwait television will air a live program titled "The Road to the White House" with overnight coverage until official results are in, while the U.S. elections are page one news in almost every newspaper in the region.
"Arabs and Muslims are looking forward to the election results. Maybe if Kerry wins, then there will be some hope to resolve the issues of Iraq and Palestine," said in an editorial in Jordan's pro-government Al Rai newspaper.
Arab satellite network Al-Arabiya -- promoting its coverage with the slogan, "George Bush or John Kerry? The result will affect us all" -- was giving its viewers a chance to vote on who they would want to be leader.
"If you had the right to vote, who would you elect?" the network asks. Call-in voting began an hour before the first polls opened on the east coast of the United States. Two hours into the calling, Bush had the early lead: 53 percent to 47 percent for Kerry in the unscientific gauge of viewer interest.
In Amman, some Jordanians said they planned to stay up all night to watch election coverage.
Jordanian pharmacist Salma Eissa said she prefers a Kerry win because the Democrats "don't use war to solve the world's problems."
State-run media in Syria, which has come under heavy pressure from the Bush administration over claims it is doing too little to stop foreign fighters from entering Iraq to battle U.S.-led coalition forces, said it made no difference whether Bush or Kerry wins.
In Iran, which Bush accuses of trying to build atomic weapons, President Mohammad Khatami said he has no preference.
"But we hope, they, whether Bush or Kerry, will move logically and justly to meet the interests of the American people and in line with noninterference in the internal affairs of other countries, detente and establishment of peace based on justice," he said.
One Arab country where the Republican ticket remains strong and the president's father is a hero is Kuwait, a U.S. ally freed by American-led forces under the first President Bush after Saddam Hussein invaded in 1990.
"In Kuwait, we have love and respect for the Bushes because they moved the world to liberate Kuwait from its occupier the toppled Saddam Hussein," wrote a columnist for Al-Anba daily.
While Middle East governments officially brush off the impact the outcome will have on relations with the United States, many Arabs have been frustrated and angered by what they view as Bush's misguided Middle East policy and American military aggression in Iraq.
Joseph Samaha, editor-in-chief of the leftist Lebanese daily As-Safir, wrote that international relations for the foreseeable future will be affected by Americans' decision Tuesday "and the Middle East is at the heart of this equation."
But it is regrettable the elections "will decide the fate of people who cannot vote in it," he added.
Israelis almost only foreigners favoring Bush
In a survey of opinions in 10 key countries in Europe, Asia and North America conducted by leading newspapers, Israel was one of only two countries -- the other was Russia -- where respondents favored Bush over Kerry (50% to 24%).
Polls in Israel have indicated that Israelis are grateful to Bush for going to war against Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein, an enemy of the Jewish state.
Israel, with as many as 100,000 eligible American voters, has been a hunting ground for both Democrats and Republicans this year.
The Republican Jewish Coalition drew attention to endorsements of Kerry, which it says Jewish voters should be worried about - those of the Arab-American PAC and the Muslim-American PAC. "Clearly these groups do not support President Bush because of his unwavering support for Israel and his relentless war against Islamic terrorists," RJC executive director Matthew Brooks said in a statement Monday.
"The endorsements of John Kerry by these two anti-Israel groups speaks volumes and should serve as a warning to Jewish Americans who think John Kerry is on their side."
Brooks noted that Kerry called Arafat a "statesman" in his 1997 book, The New War. ("Terrorist organizations with specific political agendas may be encourage by Yasser Arafat's transformation from outlaw to statesman," Kerry wrote.)
Bush has pointedly refused to invite Arafat to the White House during the past four years, a far cry from the days of the last Democratic administration in which President Clinton, Time Magazine reported, "held more tete-a-tetes with the Palestinian leader than any other world leader during his eight years in office."
On its website, the National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) presents what is says are the candidates' records on Israel. On Arafat, it notes that Kerry said last March that the PA chairman had "proved himself to be irrelevant," but it ignores the 1997 assessment of Arafat as a "statesman."
The NJDC noted that Bush in 2002 was quoted as saying he would not label Arafat a terrorist because he "has agreed to a peace process." The council made no reference to the fact Bush made Arafat persona non grata at the White House.
On Israel's security fence, the NJDC highlighted the Bush administration's concerns about the route of the barrier rather than its support for Israel's right to build it. It also ignored that fact that the administration opposed the right of the International Court of Justice to rule on the matter.
On the other hand, it cited comments by Kerry in February and April 2004 showing that he "strongly supported Israel's right to build" the barrier. The NJDC made no mention of another Kerry quote on the fence, last October, when he told an Arab American audience the fence was "provocative," "counterproductive" and a "barrier to peace."
Recent comments by Kerry stepson and ketchup heir Chris Heinz about the disproportionate influence of the Israel lobby, and Israel's role as a "51st state" and "almost a swing state" made minor ripples in Israel -- perhaps because Israelis already think of themselves that way.
The Associate Press contributed to this report.
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