A new survey reports that the Arab and Jewish public think President Barack Obama's handling of Syria and a nuclear Iran portrays a weak image of America.
The Independent Media Review Analysis reports:
A clear majority (66%) of the Jewish public thinks the U.S. administration’s handling of the Syrian issue projects weakness. This view prevails in the Arab public as well, though at a lower rate (49%). It also holds true regarding U.S. behavior toward Iran, with 64% of the Jewish respondents saying the American behavior projects weakness. Among the Arab respondents, the higher rate also "smells" of weakness (39.5%); however, the rate of Arabs who see the U.S. as projecting power is not much smaller (31%), and one-third have no clear opinion on the matter.
Nearly two-thirds of the Israeli Jewish public said they did not trust President Obama to prevent a nuclear Iran while 38.1 percent of Arabs agreed and 20.4 percent did not respond to the question.
Apparently influenced by the widespread view that the U.S. is displaying weakness on the Syrian and Iranian issues, two-thirds of the Jewish public tends to doubt that President Obama will fulfill his promise that the U.S. will prevent Iran’s development of nuclear weapons at all cost. Indeed, a cross-checking between the two questions reveals that among those who see U.S. behavior on the Syrian issue as projecting power, 69% believe Obama will fulfill his promise, while among those who see American policy as reflecting weakness, only 14% believe that Obama will fulfill his promise. A segmentation of the responses to this question by self-placement on a political right-left continuum reveals that among respondents on the right, with all its different shadings, and in the center, the rate of doubters is higher than believers. The moderate left is evenly split between believers and doubters, while on the "hard" left, the rate of believers that Obama will uphold what he has pledged is higher than the rate of those who doubt it (56.5% vs. 39%). The Arab public sees this matter differently: the rate of those who are sure or who think Obama will fulfill his promise is slightly higher than the rate of those who doubt that he will (41.5% vs. 38%).