Palestinians on US elections – questions and speculation

With just a week left until possibly the most highly anticipated US elections in history, I’ve arrived in Amman, Jordan on my way to the West Bank excited to feel out the reaction there to Senators Obama and McCain and this heated race.

The Palestinian-Israeli issue is always a big one in a US government. But to what degree are people in Palestine paying attention to the transition in the US administration? With the difficulties of daily life – from putting food on the table to Israeli travel restrictions – do Palestinians have any room for concern about elections half a world away? Surely the American government has significant impact on the daily lives of Palestinians and on Israeli policy, and my experience visiting Ramallah over my lifetime leads me to believe that people realize this.

As one of the most highly educated per-capita population in the Middle East, Palestinians (and arguably most Arabs) are news savvy, politicized, intellectual and curious. My family in the West Bank is more attuned to international affairs than most Americans I know at home. The only match I’ve seen to the degree of coffee shop and taxi banter on the day’s news in Ramallah, is in Washington.

Both news and friends’ reports have given many indicators of how Palestinians feel about the US election, and I can see all of the varied and contradictory accounts being shades of true. With the tribulations of daily life, people probably have other things to care and worry about. But most people absorb far more international news than the average American (Joe six-pack?) and it’s hard not to react strongly to Senators McCain and Obama. McCain may bring more of the same Republican policy that brought a destructive war and occupation to Iraq – a cause to which most Palestinians are sympathetic – and blackened America’s image in the world. Obama may cause uncertainty for many Palestinians, who themselves are unused to or “scared of” black people, a topic that my cousin and her husband surprised me with tonight over falafel and hummos. While there was initial excitement over the prospect that a potential Muslim was running for president of the United States, my relatives said, that intrigue has since faded as people learned the truth that the Muslim rumors were actually attempts at smears, and untrue.

But Palestinians and Arabs have also reacted to Obama with similar affinity as other nations of color in the world, who see a new face, a more familiar look, in this historic presidential candidate. Both Obama and Hillary Clinton’s ascents brightened the American promise of opportunity, equality in the eyes of the world.

I’ve come to get a better idea on how Palestinians see the election, the candidates and the eventual outcome. While I’ll seek out the answers to my questions on Palestinian attitudes, we already have some indicators on what the candidates think about Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. More on that topic in the next elections-related post.