Lebanese-Americans Weigh in on U.S. Election
With less than one week before the United States’ presidential election, the economy remains the top issue on voters’ minds.
The same can be said of most Americans of Lebanese descent who are deciding whether to vote for President Barack Obama or Republican challenger Mitt Romney. This is especially true since Lebanon is not a contested issue in the foreign policy platforms of either candidate. With the unrest in Syria, however, and the chances of a spillover of violence to Lebanon, the foreign policy of the candidates is drawing some attention.
Fifty-three-year-old Joseph al-Hage from Miami said he would vote for Romney for a wide range of domestic and foreign policy issues.
“The United States has lost its clout in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq and Obama administration’s policy of appeasement to the Russian, Chinese and Syrian leadership has undermined its might worldwide,” Hage told The Daily Star in an e-mail.
“I was born and raised in Lebanon and my upbringing influences my decisions in the presidential elections,” said Hage, a businessman.
According to Hage, Obama has been selective in defending human rights around the world. “He supported intervention in Libya but failed to act decisively on Syria,” Hage added.
But 26-year-old Phillipe Nassif, who was born in the U.S., disagrees with Hage on Obama’s record in defending human rights around the world.
“President Obama has upheld human rights, has engaged in diplomacy to end the war in Iraq while he has pursued Al-Qaeda around the world,” says Nassif, a researcher at a think tank in Washington, D.C.
Nassif said that he would vote for Obama in next week’s presidential election because the president has kept the U.S. safe while supporting other countries’ well being.
“Obama has supported Lebanon and its sovereignty more than some Lebanese politicians and political parties have in Lebanon,” Nassif added.
Nadine Elhindi disagrees. A marketing professional from Cleveland Ohio, Elhindi said, as a result of the president’s failed foreign policy, America is now viewed as weak.
“Apart from the increase in deficit the U.S. has seen since Obama took office, there is also a perception of American weakness on the world stage that did not exist prior to 2008,” said Elhindi.
Elhindi also said that despite the Obama administration’s continued support for the Lebanese Army in the form of annual aid, the president’s engagement with Syrian President Bashar Assad has resulted in negative repercussions in the region.
According to Elhindi, U.S. inaction in Syria since the popular uprising started there last year is hypocritical.
While she praises the administration’s intervention in Libya, Elhindi says Obama has not done enough to stop the killing in Syria. “The inaction in Syria where over 5,000 people have been killed by the Assad regime is baffling to many and clearly hypocritical.”
Lebanon has been largely absent from both candidates’ foreign policy agendas during the course of the campaign in the past year. Neither Obama nor Romney have mentioned the challenges facing Lebanon, whether from a possible spillover from the neighboring Syrian unrest or a possible renewal of violence between Israel and Hezbollah.
A Washington-based former official, who refused to be identified by the media, said Obama and Romney had enlisted new Lebanese-Americans as possible national security advisers for the president on the Middle East.
“Romney would appoint professor Walid Phares as national security advisor if elected to the White House and Obama would seek to appoint singer and businessman George Dfouni as his adviser on Lebanon,” said the official.
Experts say the level of interest in U.S. foreign policy depends on whether Lebanese-Americans are recent emigrants from Lebanon or second-, third- or fourth-generation Americans.
“U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is mainly dictated by Israeli lobbying groups because there is no Lebanese lobbying group and one of the main reasons why Lebanon remains on the American political radar is because of the presence of a large number of Lebanese-Americans in the U.S.,” Albert Mokhiber, a Washington-based attorney, said in a telephone call.
Mokhiber added that Lebanese-Americans’ interest in U.S. foreign policy changes between a first-generation American and a fourth-generation American.
“The new Lebanese immigrants in the U.S. are more likely to closely watch foreign policy agenda of each candidate, but third- and fourth-generation Lebanese-Americans do not really care about it,” said Mokhiber.
There are ardent Republicans and Democrats within the Lebanese community in the U.S., he added .
“Even in key swing states like Ohio, the community looks split on partisan lines,” he added.
Aram Nerguizian, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that first-generation Lebanese-Americans are more attached to Lebanon than those whose families have been there for generations.
“By the time you’re a second-generation American, you start caring more about domestic issues than issues related to foreign policy,” he said.
According to Nerguizian, there has been a circular pattern in U.S. foreign policy on Lebanon and the Middle East for the past six decades.
“From the 1950s and onward, both Republicans and Democrats have come to an idea to try to relocate Lebanon into the Western camp on a range of issues,” he said. “But … the U.S. leadership has come to the conclusion that the opportunity cost of the effort when put in contrast to U.S. interests in the region is simply too high.”
Whether Obama gets re-elected or Romney wins the election next week, foreign policy will continue to be crucial for some Lebanese-Americans, said Rafic Bizri, president of Hariri Interests, Inc.
“No matter which party constitutes the majority in the legislature or occupies the executive office, they will continue to be concerned that Lebanon be overlooked by the United States when it sets its priorities and defines its foreign policy for the Middle East,” said Bizri.
“Lebanese-Americans who are active in politics across the nation will continue to raise the issue of Lebanon’s stability, independence and security with candidates and with the next administration, whether it is Obama’s second term or Romney’s first term,” Bizri added.
Van Meguerditchian
The Daily Star