CHANSEAU

Camille

My 30 min transcription

From Our Own Correspondent Podcast

American presidents and the Middle East

 Good morning, today titles and forms of adress simple and some languages complicated in many
countries, and part of Thailand present protest. How to talk about the King ? What you may say
according to the royal list, and what others, who want fundamental change, would like to say ? It’s
enough for most of us to cope with the covid virus and social restrictions but in the south of Italy, we
meet a restaurant owner who’s also got to deal with the mafia. The huge and far reaching chinese
« Belt and Road » initiative has got to a former industrial city in Germany. We find out about China’s
investment. And with tourism curtailed, worldwide we hear from the Galapagos Islands, while
Charles Darwin manage to visit and be inspired about evolution, the locals this year are having to
cope without visitors. First to the Middle East, an area where the United States wills influence,
varying of course with presidential preferences, such as the recent accords between Israel and Four
Arab states. And now there’s a new president in the offing, and Jeremy Bowen considers the option.

« On the 4th of June, 2009, Cairo was heating up as the Egyptian’s son moved closer to full power ;
The police in their white summer uniforms and black berets, clear the pavements around the
university. Street food hawkers had to take their stools else where, some of them did selling socks
and all the other orgaments you can buy in the open air in Cairo (de 1min44 à 1min 47 r capter) (et
bien moi non plus ^^). After about 20, i gave up counting the vehicles and the endless motorcade of
the new American president Barack Obama, as it swept up the broad Boulevard leading to the
university. A new American president always generates great expectations, as Barack Obama spoke
to a (pactol) pactur ?(deso j’en ai aucune idee, c peut etre un mot qui vient de l’arabe) at Cairo
University, i could feel the mercury rising, a buzz of hope for real change went around (j’avoue qu’il la
bouffer) the room with every sentence he delivered. He come to Cairo, he said, to seek a new (pas de
n a « a » si consonne apres, ) beginning between the United States and the Muslim world. He even
reminded that his middle name is Hussein (wow quel arguement barack ^^ !). Rereading the speech
now, more than a decade later, is an exercise and a collision between good intentions, soaring
ambitions, and political realities. As a heavy weight Champion boxer, Mike Tyson once said before a
fight : « Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. » That is, more or less what
happened. And that is why i advise anyone expecting big changes from Joe Biden in the Middle East
to take a deep breath and think about Cairo. President Obama was at his best that day, with words,
hopes and aspirations perfectly pitched. To please an audience that was desperate for a new start
after Al Qaida (jsp comment ca s’ecrit mais c ca) 9/11 and a catastrophic invasion of Irak. Most of
these aspirations came to nothing, or very little. His successor Donald Trump did make changes to
America’s posture in the region. Some will stick. The US will not move its embassy (ambassade) in
Israel back to Tel-Aviv from Jerusalem. Back to so-called « Trump deliver century » to end the the
conflict when straight into the dust bin of the history. For Palestinians, it was too much like a dictated
surrender document. Joe Biden and his pick for US secretary of state, Anthony Blinken (tu m’as fait
rire ^^) will talk a gain about Palestinian independance alongside Israel. Unlike president Trump,
they’re wanting carriage building more settlements for Jews (juifs) on land that Palestinians want. It
would be a much bigger matter for the Biden (jsp) administration to find the energy and band with to
exert pressure to stop illegal settlement building all together or even to attempt a new peace plan.
Many of them including a new president were (pour que tu puisses le voir) involved in Barack
Obama’s energy-sapping and ultimately doomed peace initiatives and might not think it was worthy
effort and risk. Donald Trump had an even bigger impact on policy tools they ran (j’entends aussi ca,
juste qu’il parle bizarre. « stools they ran » peut etre « towards Iran », je te conseille d’ecouter par
toi-meme, choisis). The Obama administration along with other parliament members of the U.N
security counsel, and Germany stopped, what i believe, was a steady sly to war by making an
agreement with Iran about its nuclear activities. It wasn’t the perfect deal (show me one what that is)
but it was a chance for a new beggining. The U.S. and Mr Trump pulled out of the agreement, he said
it was horrible and one sided. His white (je ne sais pas mais c surement un seul mot. J’entends
« white ass »,k mais c hyper raciste) speech in May 2018 was a classic of its kind. He said « At the
heart of the Iran deal was a giant fiction that a murderous regime desired only a peaceful nuclear
energy program.» 5 :05