Skepticism of Obama Abroad

On his overseas trip, Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama continued to support his plan for a US withdrawal from Iraq while stressing that that the war-torn country also needed a political solution to the conflict. In a visit to Jordan, Obama vowed to work for a solution to the Israel-Palestinian peace conflict.  As Oula Farawati reports from Amman, Jordan, The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Iraq war are two issues that cause Jordanians to remain skeptical of American politics.

"Who is Obama" Egyptian worker Ahmad Saeed said as he was cleaning a car in an up-scale Amman street. "I don't care about politics or America or anything, I just want to survive here."

Saeed's political indifference mirrors a wider public sentiment in the Arab street whose expectations from a new American administration have already been determined

Arabs seem to have little hope that American policy towards the Middle East and its bias toward Israel IS going to change.  A history of failure to achieve a breakthrough in Palestinian-Iareli talk, the Iraq war and A deep dislike of American President Bush has created strong skepticism among Arabs. Haitham Dabbah is a graphic designer who lives in Wihdat, one of Jordan's refugee camps. "We have seen such visits before... Whenever there are elections, candidates come to the Middle East and they promise change, and after all, we see that all remained the same. American policy in the Middle East will always be the same and I don't know who sets it."

According to analysts, Arabs now have little faith that the United States can ever again serve as a fair broker between the Arabs and Israelis or leave Iraq without profiting economically. Jordanian Political analyst Mohammad Abu Rumman: "The Arab and Jordanian street believes that the US policy will always be biased towards Israel or the American interests in the region. Consequently, the Arab street cannot be optimistic towards any candidate before seeing fundamental change."

Obama's promise to withdraw troops out of Iraq does little to improve the situation, Abu Rumman said. "There are a lot of pre-requisites that need to be met and the public sees these promises as electioneering talk and not fundamental promises that will be taken to reality after the end of the elections."

Obama has made promises that seemed as an attempt to gain ground in the Arab world. He said he believed that the situation in Iraq was more secure than it was a year and a half ago. "I think that the definition of success depends on how you look at it. Originally the administration suggested that the key measure was whether it gave breathing room to political reconciliation. So far we haven't seen the kind of political reconciliation that will bring about long term stability in Iraq but there is no doubt that security has improved and there is no doubt that the sacrifice of men and women in uniform have contributed to that success."

Until the new President's policies are implemented, pessimism in the Arab world is here to stay.

In Amman, Jordan, this is Oula Farawati reporting for Election Unspun

PART 2

As Obama visits Israel and the West Bank, people will be watching closely to get a glimpse of what he might do as President with one of the most tenuous issues on the world - the Israeli Palestinian conflict.  Alex Rossmiller with the National Security Network talks to Producer Karen Miller. Rosmiller says Obama is walking a political tight rope.