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Obama's "Nobel Prize for Impotence" Peace Prize Given Blindly

By Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The editor of the official PA daily has criticized the decision to award the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama. According to Hafez Barghouti: "After 10 months as president he [US President Barack Obama] has accomplished nothing. He has not brought peace anywhere, but has only escalated the fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq... Obama's acts are not worthy of any prize; but the opposite, he is a president unable to accomplish his goals and deserves a Nobel Prize for Impotence." [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 10, 2009]

Two political cartoons also appeared in PA dailies following the award of the prize to Obama. An Oct. 10 cartoon in Al-Hayat Al-Jadidashows Obama receiving an award that resembles an Oscar for acting but which is in the image of a soldier, with text: "Nobel Peace Prize."

The other cartoon, which ran on Oct. 10 in Al-Ayyam, shows two coins, one with the image of US President Barack Obama and the other of the founder of the Nobel prizes, Alfred Nobel. The face of Alfred Nobel is blindfolded, suggesting that the prize was blindly given to Obama. The Arabic text above the coins, the word muhtamal, literally means "possible," but is also the word used in the game of chance that involves flipping coins for "heads or tails."

The text therefore has a double meaning. First of all, "Peace Prize - Heads or Tails" indicates that the prize was given without careful consideration, and as randomly as the flip of a coin. Secondly, the cartoon suggests that the prize should really be renamed the "Possible Peace Prize," because while peace may be possible, Obama has not yet achieved peace anywhere.