2013-10-10
New York

THE ONE WHO BROUGHT ARAB WINTER

Unlike countries whose leaders are routinely elected by 95 to 99% of the population, the United States is normally polarized as any real democracy is normally to be. Obama’s approval rating fluctuated from 70% on the first inauguration day to 30% two years later with the average almost exactly 50%. So we can see how differently Americans perceive their president. However, the percentage could be much higher if Obama’s latent wisdom were noticed and appreciated by his opponents. When Obama went on his first presidential Middle East trip and made his famous speech at Cairo University on June 4, 2009, most bat-eyed observers thought that he winks to the Muslim Brotherhood and encourages Muslims in their relentless struggle against infidels, Israel, and the West.
This young fellow, having minimal experience in anything pertinent to governing, didn’t strike anyone’s imagination as a schachgroßmeister. Nonetheless, now we can see and appreciate his long-sighted moves.
His speech and following flirts with Muslim Brotherhood and other enemies provoked the chain of revolutionary events equal to, or perhaps even greater than Gorbachev’s perestroika. Who could have imagined four years ago that Muslim Brethren enjoying gradually but steadily increasing popularity and power in Mubarak’s Egypt will be stripped of all their gains starting from the presidential office and ending with sheer legitimacy.
Who would have dared to predict that the fire of Arab Spring, so luminously started on December 18, 2010 with the human torch in Tunisia, would be extinguished by flooding Hamas’ tunnels and dechemilitarizing Syria, thus turning the blooms of thorny wild flowers in Benghazi into wintery flakes of Sarine on the outskirts of Damascus? Nobody.
Obama did.
Such ability to foresee the distant results of his actions hidden by the cloak of time reveals his great political skills and prophetic vision. He brought the Arab Winter and perhaps Islam’s dusk. We still have more than two years of enjoyment to watch the intricacy of his chess moves.  The intrigue, though, is slightly more transparent now that we know that all his moves that appear on the surface to aid Islamists and hurt Israel and the US are no more and no less than strategic sacrifices aiming to embolden our adversaries and provoke them to make a fatal mistake. Just wait. Don’t breath.