Arabs still divided, despite Obama

Submitted by Maurice (Israel), Nov 16, 2008 at 11:53

Arabs were divided long before Barack Hussein Obama came on the scene. Even decades ago, during and after WWI, Arab tribes and kingdoms were at constant conflict with one another; and attempts to develop what became known as Pan-Arabism turned out to be a failure. This is despite unification attempts by such personalities as King Faisal of Trans-Jordan and T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) ; and thus, the Arabs have been divided to this day.

Modern Arab governments are either totalitarian dictatorships or monarchies, which in themselves range from ones with some form of parliamentary governmental system (like Jordan and Morrocco) or outright fuedal ones like Saudi Arabia. The Arab peoples are still tied to being members of a series of tribes, with tribal loyalties often prevailing over loyalty to a particular country.

None of this can be tied to the coming of the new U.S. president - except that he will have to deal with these entities once he takes office. The only exception is a small country called Israel which has proven itself to be the only true democracy in the entire Middle East. And although Israel's democratic system is far from perfect, it's head and shoulders above all the others in the region.

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