Obama at AIPAC reverberations

The Sunday edition of the New York Times reported that “On the Road in America,” a 12 part series chronicling an RV tour of the US by four Arab twenty-somethings (three guys, one girl) during the summer of 2006 is set to air on the Sundance Channel.

The series was conceived “with the hope of showing Arab viewers in the Middle East a broader and more nuanced view of America than that seen in Hollywood exports.” It drew about 4.5 million viewers per episode when it was broadcast across the Middle East last year.

The show was produced by Layalina Productions, a non-profit that claims George Bush Sr., James Baker, and Henry Kissinger among the many dignitaries on its advisory board. The Sundance Channel is hoping to put the shoe on the other foot by showing American audiences four Westernized Arab youths doing their best Alexis de Tocqueville impersonation, offering candid interpretations of America filtered through their own culture and experiences.

But while such efforts are necessary and should be applauded, a few email exchanges with several friends of mine from high school in Cairo, Egypt indicate that much of the cynicism toward the US, in their minds, is the result of foreign policy and not wayward cultural exports.

Wael Omar saw Obama’s appearance at today’s AIPAC policy forum (along with McCain, Clinton, and most of the House and Senate) as a referendum on his attitude towards the entire Arab world.

“It could be a defining moment for him as far as which way the Arab news media will take him,” said Omar, 29, a filmmaker who attended Emerson College and currently resides in Cairo.

“They know he will be a friend of Israel, but to what extent is mainly their concern,” said Omar. “Common to attitudes in Europe, they think his being black is somehow an indication of his progressive politics, but it’s not clear whether they think that Obama is actually going to introduce the kinds of foreign policy changes that will make them change their views drastically,” he said.

To them, Barack Obama, with his African decent, Arab-sounding middle name, and international life-experience growing up in Indonesia, represents the best hope of shattering the status quo in the 21st century. But it’s a long way to November, and a road paved with daily reminders of what the past eight years of American foreign policy has bestowed on the region.

“The majority of people here are cynical enough after eight years of Bush, a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Gharib, and all else that while they hope for a Democrat, they would bet that McCain will be the winner come November,” Wael Omar said.

“While the conversation is mainly dominated by Obama-ism, the Arabs feel it smarter that always, in the end, they should expect the worst.”