Is Palestine Relevant?

The resounding answer according to recent polls is yes. I attended a talk this morning hosted by Brooking's Saban Center by Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, and Steven Kull, the director of WorldPublicOpinion.org. Both spoke about public opinion regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, Telhami focusing more specifically on the Arab world (based on his most recent publication), and Kull on worldwide perceptions. With regards to Telhami's portion of the presentation, I'll just sum up a few of the points that he made.

First, trends were consistent around the Arab world, which I thought was interesting. There was very little deviation by country, and little deviation by demographic. Rising attention to and care about the Palestinian situation was correlated to the amount of violence against the Palestinians as well as in the region, including Israel's incursions into Lebanon. Low points, when the Palestine issue was not among Arab people's top three concerns, represented moments of optimism, such as Abu Mazen's appearance at the White House. The polls also suggested that the majority of Arabs support a Hamas-Fatah unity government, but that when forced to select either, they trended towards Hamas. This reflects similar data on opinions towards Hizbullah.

Seemingly inconsistently, most Arabs also support a two-state solution, a trend that has increased since 2006. However, two thirds of those polled believe that this will never, ever happen, a sense of pessimism that explains the lean towards militant movements who are perceived as more likely than others to directly address the situation. Concerning the future, most Arabs saw only strife.

Telhami explained this data through what he called Arab's "prism of pain," based on a collective identity and experiences of the twentieth century. This shared identity overrides geographic, sectarian, and other demographic differences. The Arab world, for example, views the United States and Israel as the top threats to the region, and their most admired world leader remains Hassan Nasrallah, embraced less for his agenda than for his defiant stance against the US and Israel. Yet Arab support for 'extremism' is low. Among those polled who listed 'Iran' among the top threats to the region, it was rarely for their nuclear power but in fear that Iran would utilize the Arab-Israeli conflict as a means to empower extremist elements. Support for Hamas and Hizbullah reflect not a commitment to their ideology, but an attraction to their defiance, as well as based on a belief that they are more effective actors.

The main lesson from all of this is that credibility is one thing, prospects another. Actors may or may not be credible, whether political parties or foreign governments. If Arabs perceive that the peace process is not taken seriously by Israel, or by the United States, that the whole prospect lacks credibility (which is how they view the Bush administration) then their perception of the prospects will be pessimistic and support will trend towards an instrumental (though typically not a principled) embrace of militancy.

In other news, the American Anthropological Association came out in public support of the Palestinian Fulbright students.

Moroccan Music and Musings

So I'm at a weird point in my life right now. I kind of associate it with the little pause between two tracks of music, where any moment I'm waiting for the next song to begin. I'm happy to have graduated, happy to be someplace new and working, even if temporarily, with a really cool team on a really cool project. That said, I have no idea what will happen this fall...where I will be working...if I will be working (a big insh'allah on that one)...if I'll be going to this conference in Iran...etc etc etc. What problematizes everything for me is that I don't really know exactly what I want to be doing. After all, if I did, I could barrel headlong in that direction, put all my energy towards it, and get there. Do I want to go back to school for a Ph.D. in anthropology? What would I study if I did? An M.A. in something a bit more widely applicable professionally? Cast a wide net for jobs having something to do with the Muslim world, even if it means making photo copies and fetching coffee? Go for more specific things? Blech. I just want to be there, already.
Sometimes I feel as though I should just throw my hands in the air, move to Indonesia or Malaysia, and do my own thing.

Speaking of Malaysia, this article appeared in a Malaysian paper, The Inquirer, today:
Muslims not prepared to declare cloning 'halal.' Debates on modern technology and Islam are so fascinating, combining Islamic common sense with a thorough awareness of history and Islamic texts for foundations of precedence. Sometimes there simply is none, as for example with the surrogate motherhood debate that I mentioned yesterday, at least as far as I know (I imagine that some might argue that there are precedents, but surrogate motherhood does not mean adultery, nor does the man's sperm actually come into physical contact with the surrogate mother's body because the egg is fertilized externally, so...). One interesting book that addresses issues of multiple modernities and in particular Islamic modernities is Ronald Lukens-Bull's A Peaceful Jihad. I really enjoyed reading it for a class I took on Religion and Modernity, about Muslim 'pesantren' schools in Indonesia, and on the blending of secular and religious education. It stiches together many of these issues.

Other interesting reading today includes a Brookings paper by directors Hady Amr and Peter Singer on the 'war on terror,' talking about how the United States, before it can even think about winning such a war, must prove its commitment to 'American values' and particularly civil liberties. One bit that I found enlightening was the way in which the growing push for civil liberties in the 1960's and increasing awareness of civil rights issues bolstered the American image abroad, crucial in winning the Cold War in the following decades. They also mention that rights violations in the United States were used by the Soviets as evidence of American inferiority (which I think is repeated today, to varying extents, with events such as Abu Ghraib). The role of the media today has meant that the world is able to scrutinize what is happening in the U.S. on a micro level, and between Hurricane Katrina and Guantanamo, there isn't much to laud. Well, I think that's not entirely true because certainly there are individual events and actors that show what is possible in this type of society, Barack Obama being a high-profile example, but perhaps a renewed and deepened commitment to those values would give the world a different impression. Anyways, me being idealistic, most likely.

Okay, so Moroccan music...tonight beginning at 6pm at the Middle East Insitute is free Moroccan music in their 'Islamic Garden,' which isn't really all that Islamic since last time I was there they were serving wine, but it's lovely anyways.

You-Tube and Al-Qaeda and More.

As someone interested in intersections between religion and new media, I find this op-ed on social networking and user-generated videos and how Al-Qaeda fares poorly in that niche to be particularly interesting: Fighting Terror With You-Tube. It's author, Daniel Kimmage, argues that the Internet can be an effective weapon in the struggle against radical ideologies, and that Arab countries do themselves a great disservice by restricting and censoring these media. I tend to agree with him, and have argued from my own research that there are multiple forums in new media that decentralize authority and lift up individual voices who tend to contest what they hear, and in doing so, shape the ways that issues are thought of and approached. One example I found was on a Sunni messageboard site, where a group of women, all Muslim save for one Catholic, and one man, were debating the possibilities of surrogate motherhood. Despite official fatwas from respected officials in Egypt and Saudi Arabia, several of the women argued that those men were out of touch with the realities of modern science, and if, for example, one's sister could not conceive, then it would be a generous and morally-acceptable thing to do to carry her child to term for her and her husband.
Kimmage writes of the Internet You-Tube community:

It’s also an indication of how a more interactive, empowered online community,
particularly in the Arab-Islamic world, may prove to be Al Qaeda’s Achilles’
heel. Anonymity and accessibility, the hallmarks of Web 1.0, provided an ideal
platform for Al Qaeda’s radical demagoguery. Social networking, the emerging
hallmark of Web 2.0, can unite a fragmented silent majority and help it to find
its voice in the face of thuggish opponents, whether they are repressive rulers
or extremist Islamic movements.

In other news, there was another great op-ed in the NYTimes on Islam:
Why Obama Should Visit a Mosque, Roger Cohen

Also in today's NYTimes op-eds: Books, Not Bombs, by Nicholas Kristof.

American hawks prefer to address the region’s security challenges by devoting
billions of dollars to permanent American military bases. A simpler way to fight
extremism would be to pay school fees for refugee children to ensure that they
at least get an education and don’t become forever marginalized and
underemployed.

Young Saudis Beat Inflation Via Group Weddings, The Economic Times, 6-25-08
Group weddings are occuring with greater frequency throughout the Middle East/North Africa due to the painful cost of weddings. There was a NYTimes article a way back about how young men in the UAE haven been outsourcing their brides as Emirati women have too high of a price tag - and how the Emirati government combatted that through state-funded group weddings. In other countries, charitable organizations see group weddings as a way to combat the immorality associated with too many young unmarried people running around. Plus, people want to get married - it means that they finally can be adults, engage in sexual relations, have a family - it's just horribly expensive for most youth in the region and nearly 50% of men between the ages of 25-29 are unmarried. Diane Singerman wrote a paper for the Middle East Youth Initiative on the Economic Imperatives of Marriage which addresses this issue.

Saudi King Prepares Ground for Interfaith Meeting, The Star Online, 6-25-08

King of the West Bank, The Independent, 6-25-08
Crazy article about the richest man in Palestine.

Survey Says World's Top Ten Intellectuals are Muslims, Reuters 'FaithWorld' Blog, 6-25-08

Positive Developments

I went to an inspiring talk by the Jordanian Minister of Social Development, Her Excellency Hala Lattouf, who demonstrated that Jordan has taken on, among other things, some of the more difficult regional challenges and adapting culturally-sensitive solutions to preserve people's dignity. One quick example, they are now addressing domestic violence by training a special police force who dress like civilians, which makes them easier to approach. Police in Jordan are now required to barr men who have committed acts of violence from entering their homes (which is a big deal in a heavily patriarchal society), and closed circuit televisions mean that children testifying in court don't actually have to be physically present, but can give their testimony in a safe and comfortable environment. Good for Jordan.

Also today I was able to attend a talk given by Kimbery Dozier, a CBS news Iraq correspondant who, while out reporting a story, was gravely injured by a roadside bomb. Combining chilling descriptions of the event itself with fascinating proof of what trauma treatments are now able to accomplish, I have to say it was pretty riveting. A panel featuring her, ABC news White House correspondant Martha Raddatz, Michael O'Hanlon, a Brookings senior fellow who just returned from Iraq and gave a talk here two weeks ago, and Lieutenant General Peter Chiarelli, followed. Lots of interesting bits. One question from the audience addressed the limitations on the efforts there that the lack of Arabic language skills has led to, which all vigorously agreed were severe. Translators, it seems, are sort of like telescopes that allow either reporters or military personnel to access what 'average Iraqis' are thinking, except that different interpreters act as different lenses, with their own interests and biases, and so 'average Iraqis' may be thinking quite differently depending on which translator shows up to work. Chiarelli mentioned a survey given to officers leaving Iraq on what aspects of their pre-deployment training could have been improved, and apparently most responded 'Arabic' (and not just FusHa, which I imagine would be only marginally helpful) but also better cultural sensitivity training.

The Huffington Post's new blogger, Fadi Elsalameen (who has the best hair, ever), posted this great blog post yesterday: Movement on Both Sides, which optimistly assesses current happenings in the Middle East.

Driving Cabs Instead of Building Bridges, The Washington Post, 6-25-08
This is an article from today's Post on the predicament of Iraqis who aided the US Military and were subsequently resettled to the US, who now can't find a job.

This article from today's NYTimes makes me want to move to Amman: In Jordan, A Blend of Cultures.

In the News

With a Word, Egyptians Leave it all to Fate, The NYTimes, 6-23-08

Inshallah has become the linguistic equivalent of the head scarf on women and
the prayer bump, the spot where worshipers press their foreheads into the ground
during prayers, on men. It has become a public display of piety and fashion, a
symbol of faith and the times. Inshallah has become a reflex, a bit of a
linguistic tic that has attached itself to nearly every moment, every question,
like the word “like” in English. But it is a powerful reference, intended or
not.
Political and social commentators here say its frequent use reflects or
fuels, or both, the increasing degree to which people have dressed the routine
of daily life up with religious accessories. Will the taxi get me to my
destination? Will my sandwich come without onions? What’s my name? It’s always,
“God willing.”

...........

“In this place, when something works, or you want something to work, you thank God, because it’s certainly not the government who is going to help you,” said Sherif Issa, 48, a taxi driver in Cairo with a nicotine-stained mustache and a fair size belly. “It’s because everything is going in the wrong direction — who can we look up to except God?”
That Mr. Issa is a Christian is evidence that the use of inshallah is not just a phenomenon of Egypt’s Muslims.
“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Christian or a Muslim,” he said. “I’m going to take you to your house, arriving there in a decent amount of time is already a miracle. Of course I say inshallah!”

U.S. Trains Iraqi Women to Find Female Suicide Bombers, CNN.com

Cameras Emerge as a Tool in Conflict Over Land, NYTimes, 6-24-08

In Algeria, A Tug of War for Young Minds, NYTimes, 6-23-08
This one's the latest installment in the Time's 'Generation Faithful' series, examining conflicted experiences in different countries. Brookings Institute: Middle East Youth Initiative scholars Navtej Dhillon, Djavad Salehi-Isfahani and Dubai School of Goverment director Tarik Yousef are giving their commentary on the piece and answering reader questions at 'Ask The Experts' on the Majlis blog.

Muslim Voters Detect a Snub from Obama, NYTimes, 6-24-08

Helping Lebanon's Torture Victims, BBC News, 6-24-08

McCain Aide 'Regrets' Terror Remark, AlJazeera English, 6-24-08
Yeah I bet he does...how often is it 'regretted' when people in politics actually say what they mean.

Tensions Rise Between Tibetans, Chinese Muslims, LA Times, 6-23-08

China Demolishes Mosque for not Supporting Olympics, The Washington Post, 6-23-08

And more in Uighur news...
Courts Rules for Guantanamo Inmate, LA Times, 6-24-08

A lawyer for Huzaifa Parhat, who has been kept virtually incommunicado for more
than six years, said he and other members of Parhat's legal team would seek to
have him freed immediately. Parhat is one of 17 Uighur Muslims, an ethnic
minority in China, who are still being held at Guantanamo even though the U.S.
government acknowledges they pose no threat.

U.S. Network Falters in Mideast Mission, The Washington Post, 6-23-08
What seems strange to me about our desire to spread democracy in the Middle East is that a lot of people already want democracy and are working for it (read Robin Wright's Dreams and Shadows for profiles of some of those people). It's oftentimes American support for such endeavors that undercuts their legitimacy and discredits activists in the eyes of their peers...

IranIranIran

Whether it's because I'm trying to go to Iran, or because I'm reading a novel set in Iran, or because I work at a place where Iran is frequently discussed, I'm all about Iran. I got some Persian cd's from the library and will start listening to them when I finish writing this (incidentally, I used to call it Farsi when I was silenced by a graying Iranian scholar who told me that "You don't say you speak 'Francais,' you say you speak French," noting that it it improper English to use the Persian word for Persian, namely Farsi, when we don't call any other languages by their real name). Also I've been hanging around all afternoon looking at really cool pictures of Arabic calligraphy and then trying my hand at chicken-scratch calligraphy on a steno pad. I'll get there.

Anyways, I found a bunch of really cool websites.

Nokteez: Intersections with Iranian Art and Culture
Kolah Studio, Tehran
A1one Grafitti
Tehran Biennial Arts
Reza Abedini

Politics as usual...

Obama Workers Snub 2 Muslim Women, 6-19-08 The LA Times.

Veiled Muslims Banned from Obama Photo Op, 6-19-08 Al Arabiya.

At two speaking events in Detroit, in a region with the United States' highest Muslim population, Muslim women who were invited to sit behind Barack Obama onstage were barred from doing so unless they removed their headscarves, which, understandably, they didn't.

While it's clear why Obama's aides would make this decision, seeing as he's working so enthusiastically to distance himself from ridiculous and poorly-educated "once a Muslim, always a Muslim" claims, it's first of all unfortunate that in this country being Muslim is viewed as weird, or even wrong and dangerous, and second, that in a campaign that has valued diversity, that diversity stops when someone puts on a hijab.

On a more positive note, this article on a Virginia mosque reaching out to the poor by providing hot meals ran last Friday:

Va. Mosque Reaches Out, Joining Immigrant Fabric, Pamela Constance, 6-13-08, The Washington Post

Summer 2008 Palestinian Film Series

The Jeruselam Fund and Georgetown's Center for Contemporary Arab Studies are hosting a series of films about Palestinian life, society, culture, politics, and reality, many of which look quite interesting and best of all, are completely free.

Link to the CCAS schedule here.

I *Heart* Michael Slackman

...and that's reason #1,494,398 that I am a big dork.

Memo From Cairo: Don't Leave Home Without a Cultural Compass, The NYTimes, 6-11-08

Obamania in Egypt

Obama on the Nile

Thomas Friedman, The NYTimes, 6-11-08

This column will probably get Barack Obama in trouble, but that’s not my problem. I cannot tell a lie: Many Egyptians and other Arab Muslims really like him and hope that he wins the presidency.
I have had a chance to observe several U.S. elections from abroad, but it has been unusually revealing to be in Egypt as Barack Hussein Obama became the Democrats’ nominee for president of the United States.

While Obama, who was raised a Christian, is constantly assuring Americans that he is not a Muslim, Egyptians are amazed, excited and agog that America might elect a black man whose father’s family was of Muslim heritage. They don’t really understand Obama’s family tree, but what they do know is that if America — despite being attacked by Muslim militants on 9/11 — were to elect as its president some guy with the middle name “Hussein,” it would mark a sea change in America-Muslim world relations.
Every interview seems to end with the person I was interviewing asking me: “Now, can I ask you a question? Obama? Do you think they will let him win?” (It’s always “let him win” not just “win.”)

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Democrats’ nomination of Obama as their candidate for president has done more to improve America’s image abroad — an image dented by the Iraq war, President Bush’s invocation of a post-9/11 “crusade,” Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and the xenophobic opposition to Dubai Ports World managing U.S. harbors — than the entire Bush public diplomacy effort for seven years.

"But every once in a while, America does something so radical, so out of the
ordinary — something that old, encrusted, traditional societies like those in
the Middle East could simply never imagine — that it revives America’s
revolutionary “brand” overseas in a way that no diplomat could have designed or
planned."

Of course, Egyptians still have their grievances with America, and will in the future no matter who is president — and we’ve got a few grievances with them, too. But every once in a while, America does something so radical, so out of the ordinary — something that old, encrusted, traditional societies like those in the Middle East could simply never imagine — that it revives America’s revolutionary “brand” overseas in a way that no diplomat could have designed or planned.

I just had dinner at a Nile-side restaurant with two Egyptian officials and a businessman, and one of them quoted one of his children as asking: “Could something like this ever happen in Egypt?” And the answer from everyone at the table was, of course, “no.” It couldn’t happen anywhere in this region. Could a Copt become president of Egypt? Not a chance. Could a Shiite become the leader of Saudi Arabia? Not in a hundred years. A Bahai president of Iran? In your dreams. Here, the past always buries the future, not the other way around.

"These Egyptian officials were particularly excited about Obama’s nomination
because it might mean that being labeled a “pro-American” reformer is no longer
an insult here, as it has been in recent years. As one U.S. diplomat put it to
me: Obama’s demeanor suggests to foreigners that he would not only listen to
what they have to say but might even take it into account."

These Egyptian officials were particularly excited about Obama’s nomination because it might mean that being labeled a “pro-American” reformer is no longer an insult here, as it has been in recent years. As one U.S. diplomat put it to me: Obama’s demeanor suggests to foreigners that he would not only listen to what they have to say but might even take it into account. They anticipate that a U.S. president who spent part of his life looking at America from the outside in — as John McCain did while a P.O.W. in Vietnam — will be much more attuned to global trends.

My colleague Michael Slackman, The Times’s bureau chief in Cairo, told me about a recent encounter he had with a worker at Cairo’s famed Blue Mosque: “Gamal Abdul Halem was sitting on a green carpet. When he saw we were Americans, he said: ‘Hillary-Obama tied?’ in thick, broken English. He told me that he lived in the Nile Delta, traveling two hours one way everyday to get to work, and still he found time to keep up with the race. He didn’t have anything to say bad about Hillary but felt that Obama would be much better because he is dark-skinned, like him, and because he has Muslim heritage. ‘For me and my family and friends, we want Obama,’ he said. ‘We all like what he is saying.’ ”

Yes, all of this Obama-mania is excessive and will inevitably be punctured should he win the presidency and start making tough calls or big mistakes. For now, though, what it reveals is how much many foreigners, after all the acrimony of the Bush years, still hunger for the “idea of America” — this open, optimistic, and, indeed, revolutionary, place so radically different from their own societies.

In his history of 19th-century America, “What Hath God Wrought,” Daniel Walker Howe quotes Ralph Waldo Emerson as telling a meeting of the Mercantile Library Association in 1844 that “America is the country of the future. It is a country of beginnings, of projects, of vast designs and expectations.”

That’s the America that got swallowed by the war on terrorism. And it’s the America that many people want back. I have no idea whether Obama will win in November. Whether he does or doesn’t, though, the mere fact of his nomination has done something very important. We’ve surprised ourselves and surprised the world and, in so doing, reminded everyone that we are still a country of new beginnings.

In the news...Comic Books!

Author Looks to the Quran for 99 New Superheroes, Faizeh Saleh Ambah, The Washington Post, 6-11-08

The 99: "the world's first superheroes based on Islamic culture and society. Featured in monthly comic books "

P.S. I was a big comic book reader as a child. I was obsessed with the X-Men. Seriously.

Egypt's President Urges Family Planning, Ellen Knickmeyer, The Washington Post, 6-11-08

Babies are born in Egypt, on average, every 23 seconds! That's a lot of babies.

Defamation Case Launched Against Blogger for Reporting On Environmental Pollution is First of Its Kind, AllAfrica.com

In Europe, Debate Over Islam and Virginity, Elaine Sciolino and Souad Mekhennet, The NYTimes, 6-11-08

“Who am I to judge?” asked Dr. Marc Abecassis, who restored the Montpellier
student’s hymen. “I have colleagues in the United States whose patients do this
as a Valentine’s present to their husbands. What I do is different. This is not
for amusement. My patients don’t have a choice if they want to find serenity —
and husbands.”

Iran and Science Education

"Our visitors are flabbergasted when they come to our modern laboratories and see women PhD students. Often they had a completely different image of Iran, not as an academic country," said Abdolhassan Vafai, a professor at Sharif. "Here, we educate our students to solve problems that affect all humanity, like hunger, global warming and water shortages."
Iran Makes the Sciences a Part of Its Revolution. Thomas Erdbrink, 6-6-08, Washington Post.

And we have Ben Stein and Bobby Jindal (as our next VP? Blergh).

In the news...

Duck! Al-Batta! Just the sight of a Toyota Crown is enough to strike fear in the hearts of Iraqis. From Babylon and Beyond.

Shabab Al-Facebook...Daily News Egypt asks whether it's time to sign out of Facebook...

The Saudi king is initiating a large-scale multifaith conference by gathering together spiritual leaders in the Muslim world. Aol news.

"This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila Patel, 62, a widow encountered on the streets of New Delhi. "A black president of the U.S. will mean that there will be more American tolerance for people around the world who are different." Washington Post.

The American University in Cairo has a play showcasing Egyptian women's voices. Upper class university-going Egyptian women's voices, whose lives drastically differ from those outside of AUC's walls, but it's cool nonetheless. CS Monitor.

The United States of Iraq? Bush is negotiating a deal that would make US troops a permanent addition to Iraq, regardless of the upcoming election results... The Independent.

Yusuf al-Qaradawi tells Egyptians to pray less and work more! Al Arabiya.

More on 'On the Road in America' from Al Arabiya.

Brigitte Bardot pays for racist remarks. Al Arabiya.

80% of those seeking online legal advice in Saudi Arabia are women. Asharq Alawsat.

Hooray! It's my 100th post! 'Hooray,' from 'Hurrah,' comes from a Mongol war cry!

On the Road in America

Layalina productions is releasing 'On the Road in America' in the US this week after last year's Middle Eastern premiere. While Layalina is a "public diplomacy initiative" that looks at Arab media and diplomacy, they've produced a couple of interesting programs showcasing Arab perspectives including 'American Caravan' and now 'On the Road.' This latest show takes a group of young Arabs on a roadtrip across the United States, sharing and exploring their perceptions and misconceptions about the US with viewers, one another, and those Americans they encounter.

There's a great interview with its creators and participants on NPR that aired this morning.

Obamania in Syria!

Obamamania in Damascus (from The City Journal)
Syrians like the candidate’s approach to diplomacy.
Judith Miller, 3 June 2008

There are no campaign rallies or bumper stickers for him in Syria, no “Yes We Can” T-shirts on sale, but Obamamania has definitely infected the “beating heart of Arab nationalism,” as it once called itself. During my recent visit to Damascus, Syrian officials and the political elite seemed captivated by Barack Obama, well before it was clear that the Democrats’ charismatic young superstar would be the party’s presidential nominee.
Partly, it’s Obama’s youth that makes him attractive to Syrians, roughly half of whom are under 18 and whose own president, Bashar Assad, is four years younger than Obama. “But it’s not just Obama’s age that we like,” says Obaida Hamad, a 32-year-old reporter for Syria Today, the country’s only independent, English-language magazine. “Syrians think that as a man of color, Obama may understand the Muslim and Arab worlds better than Hillary Clinton or John McCain,” he says. “And we are fed up with over a decade of American leadership in the hands of two families—Clinton and Bush. For us,” he says—diplomatically omitting the fact that President Assad, who has now ruled for eight years, succeeded his father, Hafez el-Assad, who ruled Syria with an iron fist for three decades—“Obama represents new blood.”

Continued...