For more than two decades, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been the core element that shaped Arab public opinion vis-a-vis the United States. But the tenure of President George W. Bush and the Barack Obama phenomenon have taught us that new factors shape how millions of Arabs see the US today.
Obama secured very high approval ratings in the Arab region early in his presidency, especially after the speech he gave in Cairo in June 2009. Today, however, recent polls suggest that the majority of Arabs do not believe that Obama is serious about the promises he gave then to improve US policy in the region.
The problem with most of these polls is that they usually give us an unrealistic view of Arab attitudes toward the US since they assume that the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is the only factor that affects Arab public opinion toward the United States. But since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, millions of Arabs have started to judge the US through a more nuanced perspective based on three main pillars.
The first pillar is US relations with Arab regimes. Millions of Arabs realized that Washington’s support for authoritarian regimes in the region has been an important contributor to the growing radicalization of the Arab community. They’ve understood that the absence of democracy equals unemployment and poverty and that Israel’s brutal and irresponsible policies in Palestine and Lebanon are not the only cause of their daily problems, the poor standard of education, the low salaries or corrupt governments.
Some scholars disagree that democracy promotion is now one of the most important factors shaping Arab attitudes toward the US. But if we were to ask the 40 percent of Egyptians who live under the poverty line what they need now, they would answer that they need a government that would work to achieve social justice. Hence, what are their reactions when they see American officials praising the Egyptian government’s "performance" in economic reform?
In the meantime, Arab civil society, independent media and reformers — which now have a crucial role in forging and influencing the public debate on a number of issues —are advocating day and night for US pressure on Arab regimes to begin political reform. That too has led to a prioritization of democracy promotion on the agenda of Arab citizens when they think about the United States and the West in general.
The second pillar is what the Obama administration calls "the US relationship with the Muslim world," which he talked about in his speech in Cairo last year.
The problem here is that it has remained talk. The US administration has tried to improve America’s image among Muslims with rhetoric alone and has exhibited no clear and comprehensive strategy. A year after the Cairo speech, Obama is less popular in some countries, according to a survey conducted by the BBC last April. In Egypt alone, 55 percent said they did not see any progress in US relations with the Muslim world.
The third pillar, the classic one, is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. This used to be the main priority in terms of Arab opinion about the US, but it is different today, and divisions between Palestinian factions and the decline and politicization of the resistance movement have muted reactions in the Arab world regarding what is happening in the West Bank and Gaza.
It is worth mentioning that the demonstrations Egypt witnessed during the recent waves of clashes in Jerusalem because of Israeli violation of the Aqsa Mosque were organized by the Muslim Brotherhood in an attempt by the group to flex its muscles and signal to the Egyptian regime that it can mobilize the public if it needs to. The rest of the public, however, did not give the same attention to what is happening in Jerusalem compared to the attention given to the second intifada in 2002.
It should be clear then, that Arab public opinion toward the US is passing through a transitional phase where new and more complex standards are used to judge US polices in the region. Over the last two decades, authoritarian regimes have worked hard to manipulate the US image in the eyes of the Arab public, but with the rise of new media and 100 million youngsters, Arab citizens are trying to build their own image. That, as a result, should be of the utmost concern to Washington as it ponders its next moves in the region.
Mohamed A.B. Yossif is a Cairo-based journalist. This commentary is published by DAILY NEWS EGYPT in collaboration with bitterlemons.org.
