There has been Arab frustration and disappointment with the speech by United States President Barack Obama at the United Nations, on the Palestinian issue, and with the renewed bias toward Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. To say this is not merely an emotional slogan or demagoguery, which Arab leaderships and old allies of Washington of this or that kind have traditionally used in order to satisfy their peoples. Instead, this frustration and disappointment have become the basis for new policies being generated by the new regimes that have been produced, and will be produced, by the "Arab spring." In other words, the "Arab spring" will lead to more serious and effective Arab stances when it comes to the biased American policy toward Israel, and even Israel itself. One can say that the storming of the Israeli embassy in Cairo by the youth of Egypt's revolution, and the declaration by Egyptian Prime Minister Esmat Sharif that the Camp David Accords are not set in stone, and before that the hard-line Turkish position on Israel, represent the first fruits of this seriousness and effectiveness. Obama's speech proved that his administration is avoiding the new facts in the region, even though it has accommodated itself to some aspects of these facts, through supporting the uprisings here or there, or to this or that degree, because it can catch up, to keep pace with the changes underway in Arab societies, to protect America's interests. But despite these actions, the US is ignoring something. There is a linkage between this mass, Arab rush toward changing regimes that are authoritarian, oppressive and backward, compared to western ones, and these peoples' longing for national dignity. The old regimes worked to erode this dignity due to their subservience to the west; the west supported these regimes, because they secured the west's security and economic interests, along with the interests of Israel itself. American policy is ignoring the fact that the Palestinian issue forms the core of this longing for national dignity on the part of Arab young people and opposition political forces. In the subconscious of the forces of change, there is a belief that the old regimes, because of their corruption, authoritarianism and oppression, led the societies that are currently witnessing uprisings to defeatism against Israel and the west. There is a belief that a transition toward democracy and pluralism and proper wealth distribution will lead to a recovery from the state of weakness and humiliation that Arab societies appear to have been drowning in for decades, which facilitated the state of surrender to Israel and weakness vis-à-vis the Jewish state. The logic of the forces of change holds that liberation from the old regimes will allow them to regain a bit of respect for the Arab presence on the international scene. The question arises: Who will be first when it comes to drawing up the position on western policy, which insults Arab dignity, which in turn is based on the Palestine issue? The extremists, or the leaders that have been produced and are being produced by the "Arab spring," or both simultaneously? To the extent that the Palestinian leadership has benefited from the "Arab spring" moment to put forward its new international diplomatic campaign for recognition of a Palestinian state, it is certain that Obama (and with him Israel) has lost the chance to draft a new policy, to catch the implications of this spring in terms of the changes the new regimes are expected to make, in favor of the Palestinian issue. Arab young people, who now have a voice in their states' future policies, will certainly feel insulted if Washington thinks that Obama's support for Arab revolutions constitutes sufficient cover for the firm Arab belief in the contradictions evidenced by American claims. Supporting revolutions cannot work when the racist Israeli regime is also supported, while promises about the establishment of the Palestinian state are abandoned, from the Bush administration (which promised it by the end of 2007), to Obama himself (last year, he said in the UN that he hoped the state of Palestine would become a member of the General Assembly), along with promises to halt Israeli settlement activity. One of the new facts being ignored by Obama is that currently, American and western opinion polls (especially in Egypt) are demonstrating that the majority of the Arabs do not want to see the establishment of hard-line Islamist states in place of the obsolete regimes; thus, it is only natural that this majority reject recognition of Israeli as a Jewish state. Another new fact is that a clear majority has come to view American intervention in Arab states, on the pretext of supporting the "Arab spring," as aimed at blocking the path toward security and peace in the Middle East. It believes this support is also aimed at obstructing a solution to the issue of continuing occupation of Palestinian territory, and this majority doubts (in Egypt) that Washington's goal is to support the establishment of democratic regimes in the region.
