Obama Faces Uphill Climb in Mending US-Arab Ties

by Matthew Rusling

WASHINGTON, Aug. 27, 2010 (Xinhua) --

U.S. President Barack Obama came to office with hopes of fixing U.S. relations with the Arab world after the war in Iraq cast the United States in a negative light in the region.

But public opinion among Arab nations, as well as the unresolved Israel-Palestine conflict, are presenting hurdles, some experts said.

Arab approval of Obama has dropped dramatically since last year, despite what many had mistakenly viewed as his popularity in the region, according to "The View from the Middle East: The 2010 Public Opinion Poll," released earlier this month.

The study found a significant shift in Arabs' perception of Obama, whose disapproval ratings in the region jumped from 23 percent last year to 62 percent this year.

While Arabs approved of the president's early opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq, as well as his plans to close Guantanamo, they judge him according to the issues with which they are most concerned, rather than his personality, said Shibley Telhami, professor at the University of Maryland and the study's principal investigator.

The University of Maryland/Zogby International poll surveyed nearly 4,000 people in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates between June 29 and July 20.

Another hurdle is that Obama is not as well-liked in the Arab world as many might believe.

While the president was well-received during last year's Mideast visit, U.S. media misinterpreted Arab sentiment, which held a neutral attitude toward Obama, Telhami said.

"There was no embrace of Obama as a person. That's a myth," he said at a panel in Washington on Thursday.

During the visit the president made a speech in Cairo calling for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims," saying the two sides could confront militancy and pursue peace together.

The address was laced with references to Islam's important place in history, and the president noted how the religion carried the torch of learning through many centuries, paving the way for European enlightenment.

Obama also did not make last or this year's list of Arabs' most admired leaders, according to the study. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan topped the list with 20 percent of respondents choosing him as their favorite. Turkey's leader was followed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, with 13 percent and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with 12 percent.

The poll also found that disappointment over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resonates deepest in the Arab world and influences Arabs' evaluation of Obama and the United States.

Indeed, the issue is the central prism through which Arabs view the United States, he said.

That means the stakes are high for this latest round of Palestine-Israel negotiations, which are slated to kick off next week in Washington.

Speaking on the same panel, Amjad Atallah, co-director of the Middle East task force at the New America Foundation, said Obama has adopted the Oslo Accords as his own, trying to jump start a process that has been in place since 1991.

"It belongs to Obama and therefore to the United States," he said.

And that could come back to haunt him if no solution is found -- if the talks fail, Arabs could view the United States as a spent force in terms of its power to help the negotiation process.

More than two-thirds of Arabs polled say they support a two-state solution to end the conflict, Telhami said. At the same time, most Arabs expressed pessimism, saying that one is unlikely to occur.

Telhami said that window of opportunity is closing.

"It' s either going to happen or its not," he said. "And if it doesn't happen on this administration's clock, we are really into a new ballgame in the region."

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