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Obama’s stature among Muslims slips over Israeli-Palestinian standoff
By Kristen Chick, Correspondent / June 4, 2010
Christian Science Monitor
“Obama promised he would solve the Arab-Israeli conflict for good, not just push ahead with the process. But in fact he’s just pushing ahead with the process,” says Joshua Landis, director of the University of Oklahoma’s Center for Middle East Studies and a renowned expert on Syria. “And as long as that happens, things are going to be bad.”
According to a recent poll conducted by YouGov, 60 percent of Arabs now believe Obama is too weak to deliver a peace agreement. (The poll also found that 58 percent believe Obama has good intentions.) Landis says Obama quickly realized the political costs of a commitment to a two-state solution and backed off. That is now costing the US dearly in its relations with regional allies such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia, which have already begun distancing themselves from some US policies.
“At the end of the day, if we look at Obama’s harvest in the Middle East, we’ve lost friends, we haven’t gained them,” he says.
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