America’s dogged military support for Israel’s invasion of Gaza is increasing anti-Americanism on the Arab street, with comparisons frequently made to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.
Alas, the image of the “ugly American” has risen again in the hearts and minds of Arabs, with many describing Joe Biden as the “evil” president and comparing him to George W. Bush, whose administration invaded Iraq.
The phrase “ugly American” is borrowed from the 1968 novel by Eugene Burdick and William Lederer. It refers to America’s failed endeavor to help Southeast Asian countries oppose communism and instead adopt the U.S. political model — or rather to be like Americans. The phrase has commonly been used ever since to portray an American abroad who is too loud, pretentious or arrogant.
The Biden administration’s support of the hardline government of Benjamin Netanyahu, who first rose to power in 1996, has once again personified the “ugly American” to the Arabs. Many Arabs believed that Netanyahu has ever since been trying to plant in the Western psyche that Arabs (and Muslims generally) are a rising enemy — a replacement to the Soviet Union after its 1991 collapse.
Since the Soviet Union’s downfall, American intervention in the Middle East radically increased, boosting the ugly American stereotype that fuels anti-Americanism.
Navigating the convoluted reality of America’s perception in the Arab world demands reckoning with past U.S. intervention in the Middle East. In the 20 years I’ve been living in Egypt since my return in 2004 from working and studying in the U.S. for over a decade, I have witnessed a much stronger and growing anti-American sentiment in the Arab world.
Washington’s unrelenting support of Israeli aggression against Palestinians has led many Arabs to view Washington today as the greatest promoter and patron of those who commit colossal violations of human rights globally.
Biden’s aggressive pro-Israeli policy in the Middle East is tarnishing the image of the U.S. in the Arab consciousness. If the younger Bush reinitiated the ugly American stereotype among Arabs, Biden (like his predecessor, Donald Trump) has made the “ugly American” uglier.
When meeting with Netanyahu in Israel in October, Biden stressed that he is a “Zionist.” He also repeatedly declared that “if there were not an Israel, we’d have to invent one.” By declaring that he is a “Zionist,” Biden replicates the epitome of an ugly American.
Within this context, the Arab media have been describing Biden’s America as a right-wing country and a capitalist empire that aims at dominating other nations. With his administration’s continued veto of U.N. Security Council resolutions pertaining to Israel, I often see and hear Egyptian youths mockingly referring to the United Nations as the “United Nations of America.”
I no longer see Egyptians praise the American way of life, which lured me in the late 1980s to go to live and work in four U.S. states for 13 years.
Regrettably, if you chat with Egyptians on the street today about their views of America, the answer will almost always be negative. This is likely to continue until some positive and constructive initiatives are undertaken toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mention Biden, Trump, or Bush to any Arab now, and you’re likely to hear him or her denounce them as the “ugly” Americans. Sadly, Biden has given new wings to the “ugly American” stereotype.
Many Arab intellectuals speak of the need for Arab states to look eastward. They are advocating the establishment of a multipolar world which America no longer dominates. With the rise of China and Russia as superpowers, the U.S. has, however, been laboriously endeavoring to keep the Middle East out of the orbit of Asia and to further empower Israel’s military and economic capabilities.
In short, American foreign policy in the Middle East under the Biden administration is haunted by the same faults as the older U.S. policy in Southeast Asia. The anger I’m witnessing toward America today far outweighs that which I observed during the younger Bush’s rule and following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Arabs today are more cautious and suspicious of any American meddling in their internal affairs.
America’s Middle East policymakers should not despair at this criticism. Rather, it should impel them to resolve conflicts in the Middle East and establish an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 boundaries.
Only then will the picture of the “ugly American” begin to evaporate from the social fabric of Arab culture.
Mohamed El-Bendary is a Cairo-based independent researcher and author of “The ‘Ugly American’ in the Arab Mind: Why Do Arabs Resent America?” (University of Nebraska Press, 2011).