Arab potentates

I was standing in line at San Francisco Airport when a United Airlines started to rudely direct customers to various counters of the airline.  I looked at people around me and said: look how some people are capable of abusing the very little powers they are given.  Look how rude this man is.  A British woman near by said: yes. He is acting like an Arab potentate.  The wrong person (me) was standing next to her.  I exclaimed: Arab potentate?  You could not think of any potentate except Arab?  And let me tell you that Europe has produced far worse potentates that the Arab world.  And for you information--and I am an Arab--Arab potentates have been able to survive only due to Western support.  The woman--who had the air of liberal guilt--was most upset: she kept apologizing to me and telling me that she had Arab friends and that she did not mean what she meant, and that she knows that Arabs are trying to get rid of their potentates, etc.