The Middle East's Mixed Views on Obama

One day after Israelis troops pulled out from the Gaza Strip, all eyes are on United States’ president Barack Obama.

At the same time Obama talks about naming a Mid-East envoy, emotions coming from the Middle East are mixed about the new president.

During the presidential inauguration, CBS news, reporting from Gaza City, stated preconceived opinions would make President Obama’s job more difficult.

“There is a feeling in this part of the world that if you are the president of the United States, you can do whatever you want. They don’t understand the checks, the balances, the infighting and even though their own politics are riving with it, they do see the president of the United States as omnipotent and they feel he should be able to change the policy and dictate to Israel and that of course is the crisis of expectations that I think Obama will have to deal with.” (CBS News)


Israel’s news web site Ynetnews.com takes a different view saying Arab media is embracing hope for Muslim communities.

“Arab newspapers rejoice in Obama inauguration, [they] praise speech promising new relations with Muslim world. 'This is the biggest victory Martin Luther King's movement could have ever had,' says London-based al-Quds al-Arabi.” (ynetnews.com)

On a Jewish television network, Shalom TV, Jeffrey Goldberg of Atlantic Monthly believes the people of the Middle East need to review the role of the U.S. President before jumping to conclusions.

“To me the issue is not Obama in Jerusalem, it’s the Israeli national consensus in Jerusalem. I mean you know, here’s the thing. There’s an expectation in some quarters of the Jewish universe that Obama needs to be more Israeli than the current Israeli prime minister. ” (Shalom TV / Atlantic Monthly)

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