WORD COUNT 662                                                                                                                                                                            MAY 27, 2009

ARABS WANT ACTION, NOT WORDS, FROM OBAMA – by Bayann Hamid 

On June 4, President Barack Obama will address the Muslim world from a podium in the most populous Arab country. His speech in Cairo will be watched closely throughout the Arab world and beyond by those eager to ascertain what shape U.S. policy toward the Middle East will take under the new U.S. administration.  

More important than what Obama says during his Cairo address will be the actions his government takes subsequently. If the last eight years revealed anything about U.S. relations with Arab nations, it is that U.S. rhetoric and public diplomacy efforts are useless if they do not correlate with U.S. actions.  

On a similar visit to Cairo in 2005, then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delivered a major address outlining the U.S. thrust toward the Arab world. In her speech she promised a new U.S. policy towards the Middle East that would support “the democratic aspirations of all people” and acknowledged that previous U.S. policy “pursued stability at the expense of democracy….and we achieved neither.”  

But the United States did not make good on the secretary’s promise. It continued to support authoritarian regimes in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. Following the January 2006 elections in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, the United States supported efforts to isolate and undermine the democratically elected Hamas-led government, a decision that backfired and resulted in full Hamas control of the Gaza Strip. 

Ongoing attempts to improve Arab opinion of the United States through public relations also proved ineffective. In 2002, the Bush administration established Radio Sawa to air news from an American perspective and in 2004, the al-Hurra news channel was launched. Despite the considerable financial investments in the outlets, Arab opinion of the United States continued to decline.  

Until now, Mr. Obama has adopted conciliatory rhetoric in his addresses to the Arab and Muslim worlds. He signaled that these would be a foreign policy priority by awarding his first televised interview with foreign media to the Arabic language news channel al-Arabiya. In his interview, he emphasized a commitment to relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds based on “mutual interest and mutual respect.” Later, during his first trip abroad as president, he spoke of partnership before the Turkish parliament. 

Opinion polls suggest these initial overtures have been welcomed. The latest Zogby International poll released in May shows that Arabs generally view the United States slightly more favorably than they did a year ago. But overall opinion remains low. In Egypt, where Obama will deliver his address, 78 percent of those polled said they viewed the United States unfavorably. 

But while only 14 percent of Egyptians currently view the United States favorably, more than twice as many believe that President Obama can bring positive change to the Middle East. The numbers suggest that many Arabs are adopting a “wait and see” approach to the Obama administration. While initial signals from the president are positive, many Arabs are waiting for more substantive gestures before reaching a final verdict about his administration’s policy toward their region.  

If the hope that some 38 percent of Egyptians place in Obama is to materialize in a change in their perceptions of the United States, he will soon have to match his conciliatory tone with concrete policy changes. Namely, he must prove himself not only dedicated to mediating a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but be committed to an evenhanded approach. He will have to make good on his promise to withdraw responsibly from Iraq. And he will have to see that the prison in Guantanamo Bay is closed.  

President Obama has proven himself a strong orator with ability to bridge divides in America. His Cairo address, as his earlier overtures, will undoubtedly be received positively. But the Arab world awaits his actions eagerly. If he is sincere in his commitment to a foreign policy based on mutual respect, he will have to fashion a policy that is based on deeds, not sweet talk. For American leadership to flourish once again, Obama needs to make good on his promise for change abroad.  

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Bayann Hamid is media coordinator at the Middle East Research and Information Project, publishers of Middle East Report. 

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