Sometimes the selection of a speech’s venue is just as important as the speech’s message:
President Obama’s decision to deliver a speech here next month has given significant encouragement to a once powerful ally that has grown increasingly frustrated over its waning regional influence and its inability to explain to its citizens why it remains committed to a Middle East peace process that has failed to produce a better life for Palestinians.
After eight years in which Egypt felt unappreciated and bullied by the Bush administration, Egyptian officials were gleeful about Cairo’s selection last week for the president’s address to the Muslim world. They said that it proved Egypt remained the capital of the Arab world and that it eased concerns that Washington might undermine its Arab allies in exchange for a grand deal with their rivals in Iran.
The Obama administration could have selected any number of Arab countries to make a major speech to the Muslim world — most notably, the moderate states of Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. Egypt is at a cold peace with Israel, and the country receives a generous amount of U.S. assistance (possibly in exchange for the peace with the Jewish state).
However, Egyptian is an authoritarian regime that cracks down on dissidents and also keeps Palestinians imprisoned in Gaza. Jordan is friendly with Israel, but it wants nothing to do, justifiably or not, with the Palestinians in the West Bank. Saudi Arabia has had a historic friendship with the United States (mainly because of its vast supply of oil), but the country funds extremist Islam schools throughout the world as a result of a devil’s bargain for relative peace between the government and the radical imans there.
So, why did President Obama choose Egypt? The likely reason is that he wants to support the Arab country that is the strongest bulwark against the increasing influence of Iran. (Do not forget that moderate, Muslim countries despise the theocratic state just as much as Israel and the United States.) Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has effectively, though undemocratically, kept the Muslim Brotherhood in check. Jordan’s goverment is weaker and facing constant threats since a majority of its population is comprised of Palestinians, many of whom are extremists. Saudi Arabia, even if it wanted, cannot fight strongly against the Islamists in there.
Obama is proving to be more pragmatic and realistic than both his supporters and detractors probably thought. Although the White House is now moving quickly in its efforts — rightly or not — to finalize a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, it knows that its must garner as much support against Iran as possible. Egypt is probably the strongest ally in that capacity.
