Democratic candidate Barack Obama
Democratic candidate Barack ObamaIsrael News Photo: (file)

The vast majority of dual Lebanese-American citizens who are living in Lebanon have already sent in their write-in ballots, and have voted for Democratic candidate Senator Barack Obama in tomorrow's United States presidential elections.

"Obama's father is Muslim and black, so he will understand the region better and will be less arrogant than [Republican candidate John] McCain," said 60-year-old Ali Berri, who today owns a supermarket where he lives in Chicago.

Berri, who was interviewed by the Lebanese Daily Star, grew up in the town of Tibnin, near Bint Jbeil, a Hizbullah stronghold repeatedly targeted by the IDF during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. The newspaper also quoted municipal officials in Tibnin who said "the town is practically deserted in winter because so many of its residents live in the United States."

At least 3.5 million American citizens are of Arab descent, according to the latest statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau.  The majority are Lebanese-Americans (39 percent) who are living in the Midwest. Most are Christians who live in the state of Michigan.

"I'll vote for Obama, that's for sure," enthused 48-year-old Sayyed, a Shi'ite Muslim restaurant owner in Bint Jbeil who told the AFP news agency that he is "not against America, but [is] against the policies of Bush." Sayyed, who sports a portrait of the late Iranian religious leader Ayaatollah Khomeini on the wall of his restaurant, which he named "Al Tahrir" (The Liberation, in Arabic), left New York after 30 years and moved to southern Lebanon after Israel withdrew its forces in 2000.

"I am nothing without the United States. I could not have built this," he said. "In the U.S. your rights are protected and your freedom of expression is respected."

Other Lebanese-Americans who were interviewed also expressed strong support for Obama, citing their fears that McCain would "certainly drag us into another war if he's elected," as one person put it. Some had sent in write-in ballots, and others planned to hop a plane and fly to the U.S. to be there to vote in person.