English-language Arab newspapers have largely expressed hopes that President-elect Barack Obama will be supporting the Arab world, but many Arabic language newspapers mocked the victory.
The English Saudi Gazette daily headline, "Gulf Arabs hail election of 'Muslim-linked' Obama," and English newspaper in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also expressed optimism. However, the Beirut Daily Star took pains to note that President-elect Obama faces "an entire subculture [that] operates within the American political arena …widely known as the 'Israel' or 'Jewish' lobby.
Arabic-language media expressed harsher views.
The Democrats Are Like a Snake That Kill[s] You Slowly Without You Noticing.
The Egyptian daily Al-Qaradhawi stated, "The Democrats Are like a Snake That "Kill[s] You Slowly without You Noticing," according to a translation provided by The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). "The Democrats kill you slowly without you noticing it – and therein lies the danger. They are like a snake whose touch is not felt until its poison enters your body."
The Iranian daily Jomhouri-ye Eslami's editorial was headlined, "That Black Man Will Never Change U.S. Policy." It added, "The most that that black man can do in the White House is to replace some of the staff and change some ceremonial procedures. He will never manage to change the structure of the American regime, which was established by capitalists, Zionists, and racists."
Although major Arab newspapers favored Obama, the Syrian daily Al-Watan wrote after the elections, "Some claim that if Obama wins he will be no better than Bush, if not worse... They may be right, since it is well known that no American president has ever stood on the side of the Arabs – rather, they have all stood on the side of Israel…"
The Saudi Arabian Al-Watan editorialized, "There is no significant difference between Obama and McCain. They disagree only on the means to achieve America's chief goal, which is to rule for another hundred years."
A more moderate view was expressed by Daoud Al-Shiryan, columnist for the London-based Saudi Arabian daily Al-Hayat and deputy director of Al-Arabiya Television. "The U.S. elections afford a kind of change that does not occur in the Arab 'democracies'... The faces [in the White House] change in a way that we find impressive," he wrote.