I’m an Arab and I’m with her

[BlueMTexpat]

http://globalcomment.com/im-an-arab-and-im-with-her/

This post gives the Arab case for Hillary Clinton - one major reason why Clinton lost the MI primary was because many Arab-Americans supported Bernie Sanders, for many of the reasons mentioned here.

But Arab-Americans are NOT insane. Like this poster, many now support Hillary. So I am not as worried about MI as some of those now "concerned."

By and large, Arab ambivalence towards Trump and this race is based on a deep dislike, at times outright hatred, for Hillary Clinton. Hillary is seen as a huge supporter of Israel, a hawk whose policies resulted in the collapse of Libya and Syria, a supporter of the Iraq war in 2003, and worse. As Clinton put it at the end of the first debate: “I think by the end of the night I will be blamed for everything!”

Many Arabs fear that the Washington establishment is pushing and praying for a Hillary victory because she will embark on many more military adventures in the region. This fear is real. Almost all American interventions in the Arab world have been perceived to be on the wrong side of history and justice! American interventions have served Israeli interests and regional dictatorships, or both at the same time. Americans should never believe the lie, repeated mindlessly by politicians and mainstream media, that America has sided with the forces of democracy and freedom; at least not in the Arab world. That was never the case.

However, any attempt to paint Hillary as a neocon interventionist is misguided and unfair. In fact, the neocon US establishment has been battling Hillary relentlessly since 1992, doing everything they could to disqualify her, or even imprison her! If she is so much the neocon standard bearer, it doesn’t stand to reason that she would be the subject of so much vitriol and plotting by that very establishment.

The defense of Hillary, from an Arab perspective, can be focused on debunking the following lies:

Much more at the link. It's worth a read and was shared on FB today by a former colleague, who is Jordanian. Unfortunately, he can't vote in the US election. But he knows many who can!

[Cha]

1. Thank you for this, BlueMT.. I'm really glad that

GN Omar is making his case for Hillary.

I've found from supporting her for all this time that she gets a bad rap for things that aren't even true.

If the "media" told the truth about Hillary and the truth about trump.. this race would not even be this close.

More Than 1 Million US Muslims Now Registered to Vote



http://www.voanews.com/a/us-election-muslim-voters/3576727.html

[BlueMTexpat]

2. I have been very pleased

and somewhat amazed that so many of my FB friends/former colleagues who are Arab and/or Muslim are so strongly supporting Hillary right now. I just wish that more of them could vote in the US, LOL!

In MI, the real issue for many Arab-Americans - many of whom are not Muslim - has been Hillary's failure to speak out against the ongoing Israeli mistreatment of Palestinians. They believed that Bernie's stance on this issue was a better one and I have a LOT of sympathy for that viewpoint as well.

I just believed from the get-go that Hillary was the stronger candidate all-round. Arab-Americans are both intelligent and fair enough to see that Trump is in no way whatsoever their friend - he just hasn't gotten around to bashing them specifically as Arab-Americans, mistakenly thinking he has covered that by bashing Muslims in general.

Given a choice between Hillary and the Orange One, I have no doubt whatsoever that the majority will choose the MUCH better option, which is Hillary.

[Cha]

4. Yeah, I thought

they would be Muslims, too.. sorry.

Hillary will be so good for all of us.. we're lucky to have her.

[ColemanMaskell]

5. Yeah, Christians and people of other faiths often flee from Islamic countries due to persecution

[BlueMTexpat]

8. That happened most often after invasions or

world wars. The truth of the matter is that Christians were generally not persecuted under the Ottomans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_the_Ottoman_Empire

Many Christians emigrated during the unrest following the assassination of Francis Ferdinand in Sarajevo and especially after the carving up of the Ottoman Empire following WWI. In fact, it was that carving up of the Ottoman Empire, especially by Great Britain and France, that has led to much of the strife in the ME since.

[BlueMTexpat]

9. Many are Muslims, true.

But not all.

[Cha]

11. Good to know!

[ColemanMaskell]

6. Even if HRC might be a little too pro-Israel, surely she's still far better than Trump for USA Arabs

It's true Obama has been less blatantly pro-Israel than any previous president for a long time, and yes Bernie would probably have been similar.

But for an Arab-American actually living in America, or for any other dark skinned person living in America, surely giving free rein to the KKK and similar-minded white supremacist supporters of Trump can't be the best option.

As for Israel, Trump might not side with Israel in the U.N. and such, but Trump would most likely give Putin free rein to wipe out vast numbers of inhabitants of the entire area without regard to their religion or any other consideration except location, using the excuse of fighting ISIS to follow a scorched earth policy if the USA is not a player in the area. Even if Putin bombs Israel too, that doesn't exactly help the Palestinians who will be bombed even worse.

If, on the other hand, Trump wants to follow up on his idea of trying to "take the oil", then he may continue to side with Israel as a practical matter, just as other presidents have done. In that case I don't see that Trump would bother trying to rein in Israel's building of new settlements in occupied territory or repression of Palestinian civil rights within Israel.

Giving Israel a free hand in their treatment of the Palestinians, not even trying to influence the Israelis toward moral restraint of any kind, can't make life better for Palestinians.

I don't see that Palestinians or their supporters have anything good to expect from a Trump presidency.

[BlueMTexpat]

10. That is basically the

point of the article.

[ericson00]

12. What is this "neocon establishment" this piece speaks of?

Plenty of paleocons didn't and don't like her either.