Despite Afghanistan, Obama must focus elsewhere, Arab analysts say

As strife in Afghanistan diverts world attention to U.S. involvement in that region, leading Arab analysts have warned that Barack Obama risks losing his current popularity in the Arab world by delaying action on the Palestinian issue, Iraq and political reform elsewhere in the Middle East.

In a timely reminder of the task at hand, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowd of Shiite pilgrims in the southern Iraqi city of Kerbala on Friday, killing 32 people and wounding 84 others south of Baghdad during one of the holiest events of the Shiite calendar, Reuters reported.

Leading Arab analysts and writers, in a report commissioned by the Carnegie Middle East Center, write that the Obama administration to focus immediately on the Palestinian issue, using its influence with Israel to halt settlement activity and acting as an honest broker in peace negotiation.

Failure to do so, they say, risks reviving regional anti-American hostility.

According to the analysts, Gamal al-Ghitany, Khaled al-Hroub, Salah ad-Din al-Jourchi, and Mustapha al-Khalfi — prominent journalists, academics, and activists — the widespread belief that the United States is an ally of regional dictators and an unquestioning supporter of Israel colors Arab perceptions of every American move in the region.

They argue that pressuring Israel to fulfill its commitments vis-à-vis the Palestinians is the only way to rebuild U.S.–Arab relations and rehabilitate the United States’ image in the Middle East.

Carnegie’s Amr Hamzawy and Marina Ottaway, who compiled the commentaries, conclude in the report:

“Obama’s election was a public diplomacy triumph for the United States, the first real success the United States has won in the Arab world in a long time, and probably the most important one since President Eisenhower backed Egypt’s efforts to regain control of the Suez Canal in 1956. Yet the success could prove short-lived: Arabs were reacting to concrete change, not to words, and are likely to revert to the old hostility unless Obama’s words are backed by concrete changes in U.S. Middle East policies.”

Meanwhile, Obama's new envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan met key ministers in the Afghan capital on Friday, two days after triple Taliban attacks in the city killed 26 people.

Wednesday's attacks on government buildings show how hard it is for the Afghan government and its Western backers to ensure security, even with dozens of police checkpoints in Kabul and armed guards at the entrance of every state office.

The attack in Iraq, on the pilgrimage route in Iskandariya, 40 km (25 miles) south of the capital, came a day after a bomb killed eight in the Shiite holy city of Kerbala, to which hundreds of thousands if not millions were headed to mark Arbain.

http://www.globalpost.com/notebook/middle-east/090213/despite-afghanistan-obama-must-focus-elsewhere-arab-analysts-say