Watching history

While we don't have any intention of making this a blog about politics, we wanted to write a few lines about our unique perspective on President Obama's speech in Cairo yesterday.  I was fortunate to have the chance last night to hear excerpts from the speech, followed by remarks from the US ambassador to Qatar and then a town hall-style Q&A session at the Brookings Doha Center.

Whatever your political views, the speech was well-written and extremely well-delivered, so much so that a number of people in the crowd last night were already making comparisons to JFK's famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech (which I understand was actually "I am a jelly doughnut," but that's another story).  Our ambassador to Qatar is a very impressive man, and he delivered his remarks in Arabic, which was excellent according to the Arab next to me.  However, the highlight of the evening (other than getting to watch portions of the above-described speech) was the Q&A session.

In general, the comments from the audience (which included a large number of Arabs of various nationalities, as well as many Americans and other English-speaking expats) were favorable. Obama's speech especially resonated with the younger members of the audience; at least a couple of college students (one Arab-American and one Arab who had studied in the US) were particularly effusive in their praise for the President.

Some older members of the audience, however, offered some tough and pointed questions even as they also praised the evenhanded and eloquent speech given by President Obama.  For example, a Syrian engineer in the audience took issue with the fact that Obama had mentioned the Holocaust in the speech, as if to link it to the Arab world.  The gentleman acknowledged that the Holocaust had happened, said that he (and most Muslims) considered it a terrible, evil occurrence, but also said that prior to World War II Jews were treated far better in the Middle East than in Europe.  (I'm unfortunately not as well-versed in the region's history as I should be, but I believe that this is generally true.)  His question was essentially why Arabs, and Palestinians in particular, should have to pay such a steep price for the Holocaust by giving up their lands when they had nothing to do with it.  Another Arab in the audience asked why the US--which ostensibly supports democracy and free speech--supports some of the most repressive regimes in the Arab world.  (I didn't hear a response to that one.)

All in all, it was a fascinating and informative exchange, and I feel fortunate to have had such a unique vantage point from which to experience this historical moment.