American politics have become intimately tied to Arab politics since 9/11 and the start of the war in Iraq. According to a 2007 Zoghby poll, 61 percent of Arab-American voters mentioned Iraq as the top issue in the current presidential election contest. The same number of Arab-Americans also ranked "Palestine" as being very important for them as an election issue.
There are about 3.5 million Arab-Americans. More than half of the community is Christian, and most are of Lebanese origin. Arab-Americans are actively involved in the political life of the United States. In the past, Arab-Americans, especially the more affluent, voted Republican. But currently, 62 percent are estimated to be Democrats and 25 percent are Republicans.
On Super Tuesday, Democrats left undecided who would win the party's nomination - Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. On the Republican side, Senator John McCain holds a commanding lead over his major rival, Mike Huckabee. Ron Paul, the only Republican candidate whom Arab-Americans tend to support, is likely to soon vanish from the race.
There has been no uniformity of sentiment among Arab-Americans on the results of Super Tuesday. Nor can one assume that this diverse community votes as a bloc and is guided by a single issue. Most Arab-Americans are well assimilated into American society, and the process of integration of minorities in society widens the latitude of their opinions.
"Arab-Americans should be greatly encouraged by Tuesday's Democr mary results," observed Abdeen Jabara in an email to me. Jabara is a civil rights attorney and a former president of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee. "Obama's credible showing and the number of convention delegates he garnered demonstrated he is not only still a serious contender for the nomination, but that his message of change is resonating with large segments of an American public, of which Arab-Americans are a part, deeply unsatisfied with the status quo and the business-as-usual prescriptions for America's foreign and domestic policy ills. This was truly a historic day and Arab-Americans can be proud of the part they played in it."
Maysoon Haddad, an Iraqi-American, is fascinated by Super Tuesday. She represents many Arab-Americans, and wrote to me: "As an American originally from Iraq, I watched Super Tuesday, admire the system and appreciate the real democracy and hope to see the samething happening in Iraq."
Haddad holds a Republican point of view on the continued US military presence in her country of origin. As she put it: "I'm looking for a president who supports the war wholeheartedly; a president who doesn't want to rapidly decrease the United States' presence in Iraq and who doesn't waver with public opinion. A quick troop withdrawal is asking for trouble and an exact timeline might be too much - giving away too much to the enemy and allowing them to form a timeline to attack our troops or harm other Americans."
The 300,000 Arab-American community of Dearborn, Michigan, is diverse in its politics and ethnicity. M. Kay Siblani, the executive director of the Dearborn weekly, The Arab-American News, supports Obama as a candidate who will, she insists, overhaul American politics. As Siblani wrote to me: "Super Tuesday proved that Arab-Americans and American Muslims must forge ties with African-American voters. They must all work harder together to get Barack Obama elected. Clinton or McCain in the White House would be a disaster for the country and the world."
In Washington, Subhi Ghandour runs a center for political and cultural dialogue. His electronic newsletter is well respected and has wide circulation among Arab intellectuals. In a conversation I had with him about the elections, he explained that Arabs do not have a better choice than Obama "in dealing with the Arab-Israeli peace process, ending the Iraq occupation with diplomacy and opening channels of dialogue with Iran and Syria." Ghandour added that Obama could not be expected to see the entire world through a Palestine lens, and that "Arab-Americans must chose among the existing candidates, even if there is no ideal custom-made candidate to fully suit Arab requirements."
Arab sentiments on Obama are not unanimous, however, especially among Palestinians. Electronic Intifada, a Palestinian activist Web site, angrily criticized the senator from Illinois, who "offered not a single word of criticism of Israel, of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians."
In contrast, Obama fascinates Jim Zoghby, the founder and president of the Arab-American Institute, an organization promoting Arab-American access to mainstream politics. Zoghby opined on The Huffington Post Web site last December: "It appears from the excitement he generates that [Obama] has tapped into a deep vein in the contemporary American psyche. While it is always useful to parse out the positions he has taken on critical issues, and even to weigh in the balance the importance of 'experience' versus 'judgment,' or 'change' versus 'Washington' - these being the matters discussed by the candidates - they, alone, do not explain the phenomenon we are witnessing. Something more profound is occurring in this election. And it appears to be wrapped up in the person of Barack Obama, himself."
On Super Tuesday, Obama came close to matching Hillary Clinton's popularity. Many of his supporters believe that he will gain momentum during the next few months and eventually be chosen as the Democratic candidate to face, most likely, John McCain. Obama's Arab-American supporters believe that a man with such a diverse international, interfaith, and interracial background is bound to make America more inclusive domestically and globally.
For Arab-Americans, the 2008 presidential election process offers a strategic opportunity to tie America with the Arab world not through war and fear of terror, but through ideas and aspirations.
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