Apparently Obama's Cairo Speech Did Not Rock The Arab World After All

Remember Obama's Cairo speech?

Remember how the Cairo speech was credited for the results of the Lebanon election?

There were many domestic reasons voters handed an American-backed coalition a victory in Lebanese parliamentary elections on Sunday — but political analysts also attribute it in part to President Obama’s campaign of outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.

Remember how the Cairo speech was credited for the protests in Iran?

Obama's approach to Iran, including his assertion that the unrest there represents a debate among Iranians unrelated to the United States, is an acknowledgment that a U.S. president's words have a limited ability to alter foreign events in real time and could do more harm than good. But privately Obama advisers are crediting his Cairo speech for inspiring the protesters, especially the young ones, who are now posing the most direct challenge to the republic's Islamic authority in its 30-year history.

Now there is research that indicates that the Muslim world was not all that moved by Obama's speech:

President Barack Obama's much-heralded speech last month in Egypt did little to change America's image in the Muslim world, a survey released Thursday shows.

Muslim people were not so easily moved by Obama's speech June 4, according to interviews conducted by the Pew Research Center's Global Attitudes Project.

"This analysis suggests that the speech had little measurable impact on views of the U.S. or Obama himself," the Pew researchers said.

...Only 14 percent of Turks have a favorable view of America; 15 percent of Palestinians; and 16 percent of Pakistanis.

...It may be too early to precisely judge the impact of Obama's highly-anticipated speech at Egypt's Cairo University last month, but the Pew poll said that the president's remarks resulted in lowering Israeli opinions of the United States more than it uplifted Palestinians.

Apparently, Israel expected long time friends to remain loyal while Palestinian Arabs expected Obama to hand them their own state on a silver platter.

Both have been disappointed.

Technorati Tag: Obama and Arab World.