Obama continues Bush's Mideast policy

 Press TV

The Muslim world's confidence in US President Barack Obama has dropped drastically, according to results of a new poll conducted in seven Muslim countries. The poll results released by the Pew Global Attitudes project, shows that more than eight out of ten people in Egypt, Turkey, and Pakistan do not trust the United States and its president.

The poll indicates Obama's failure to have a new beginning with the Muslim world, despite his vow to do so in a speech in Egypt last year.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Jennifer Loewenstein, from the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on the issue.

Press TV:In many area's, especially in the Muslim world, Obama's approval ratings now stand at about the same place as George Bush's. Is that surprising to you? What change have we seen in Obama compared to Bush in relation to problems in the Middle East?

Loewenstein:I do not think Obama can't do anything about the Middle east. I think he does not want to do anything. I think if you look at the US foreign policy in the past six or seven decades, you will see that a consistent trend has been perpetuated by every administration. If there is anything disappointing about Obama, is that he is worse than George W. Bush. Because he claims that he is going to have a new opening with the Muslim world, that he cares for people there, but in fact in his decisions he takes a step beyond George Bush, such as when he allowed Bagram Air Base trials to go ahead without giving habeas corpus to the prisoners.

I mean there lots of such policies that have gone worse. It is not because he cannot do anything, it is because he does not want to. Bill Clinton was extremely pro-Israel throughout both of his terms in presidency. He always sided with the Israelis; he blamed Yasser Arafat for failure of Camp David talks. The same is true with Obama. Obama was giving keeno speeches at AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) two years before he announced his candidacy for the presidency. In other words he was preparing to have to deal with the kind of influence and pressure from here home not just from AIPAC but also from the Christian right, also from corporations who want to maintain the US hegemony in the Middle East.

You know, when Operation Cast Lead was going on, Obama founded it in to comment on every other domestic matter in the United States. In other words the only people he was looking out for were the Israelis who were victims of home-made primitive pipe bombs, not the Gazans who were getting the brunt of the forces of the most powerful military in the world. This was not an act of self-defense. It was an act of sheer aggression that broke every international law on this matter. It shows perfect continuity with the US policy since the Second World War.

We heard about the Yemenis terrorist who tried to blow up a plane ostensibly, on and around Christmas day this year. We saw that in the media that was hyped up as usual. What we did not see, and what we do not hear and what we are still not hearing is that how the United States in involved in the bombing of the civilians in Yemen, repeatedly now since last fall and the number of displaced people there and the number of civilians who have died. This is what Americans do not get here.

So this idea somehow that Barack Obama means well and that he wants to do something for the Palestinians is crab. I am sorry to be so blunt. If he wanted to do something, there could have been a Palestinian state in place.