ARAB EXPECTATIONS of US president Barack Obama are high ahead of his address to the Muslim world next month.
A poll of 7,000 respondents in six Arab countries shows that a large proportion are optimistic about his policies. In Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan and Egypt the favourable average is 48 per cent compared with 19 per cent unfavourable and 13 per cent neutral. The highest favourable rating, 58 per cent, is in Jordan. The lowest, 35 per cent, is in Egypt.
The Egyptian response is significant because Mr Obama is set to deliver his policy speech on June 4th in Cairo, the Arab League’s base. On Saturday, the 22-member organisation called upon Mr Obama to outline his strategy in detail. He has called for the emergence of a Palestinian state and said there should be simultaneous negotiations on the Palestinian-Israeli and Syrian-Israeli tracks.
Sources in Washington have indicated that the new US strategy proposes a ceasefire in Gaza, the lifting of Israel’s blockade of the Strip, and a prisoner exchange. The Palestinian Authority will receive greater funding for its security forces and Gaza’s reconstruction. Moreover, there will be pressure on rivals Fatah and Hamas to form a unity government.
Arab states will be asked to take steps to normalise relations with Israel if the Jewish state implements its commitments under a revived road map.
Arab foreign ministers welcomed Mr Obama’s backing for the “two-state solution”. But the league’s assistant secretary general, Hisham Yousef, warned that the Arabs should not get “overly optimistic” about his statements and they should avoid “excessive pessimism” about the stance adopted by Israeli premier Binyamin Netanyahu.
Arab governments have set out to the Obama administration their positions, said Mr Yousef, who added that no negotiations with Israel should take place without a halt to settlement activity and an end to Israeli demolitions of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem.
Arab states are not opposed to making “gestures” to Israel but only if it honours its commitments. “Arab governments are absolutely not willing to make concessions . . . without getting anything in return, particularly when the Israeli government has announced extremely negative policies.”
The Netanyahu government rejects the two-state solution and seeks to grant Palestinians only self-rule and “economic peace”. Mr Netanyahu has said he will not end settlement activity or pull out of the West Bank and will “never” withdraw from the Golan Heights, Syria’s price for peace.
Last week he outlined his policies to the powerful pro-Israel America Israel Public Affairs Committee in the expectation that it would exert its influence on congress to press Mr Obama to tailor his strategy to suit Israel. Instead, according to reports from the conference, participants were asked to “sign on to a letter addressed to Obama [and Congress] that explicitly posits the need for a ‘viable Palestinian state’.”
Analysts say that the two-state solution is supported by 70 per cent of the US-Jewish community.
