Shams Ahsan Saudi Gazette JEDDAH – US Republican presidential campaign managers are struggling to figure out what kind of options they can offer the American public that look different from those of the Obama administration, said Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat Professor for Peace and Development at the University of Maryland, and non-resident senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution. During a round table debate on the consequences of the US election for the Middle East and Arab countries at the US Consulate here Monday, Telhami said both the Republicans and the Democrats have problems explaining their policies to the American people, especially on Afghanistan about which they come across as confused. “US public opinion by and large is not focussed on foreign policy issues,” he said and so the attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi is not going to have much impact on public opinion. “It does, however, have an impact on US Congressional politics. The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is using the attack to air its criticism of the government, especially the State Department,” said Telhami, who is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In Telhami's opinion, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has tried to elevate foreign policy issues a bit, but so far he has failed because he has not been able to propose a differentiated position. “The mood of the American public is anti-war. Every poll shows that. They don't want to see a nuclear Iran, but they don't want to go to war with Iran. They want to see the Assad regime fall, but they don't want to get involved in war. So Romney comes along and says he wants to be tougher, but when he is asked if he is proposing war, he says, ‘No, I'm not proposing war,' because he knows the public is against war.” The Romney campaign knows that the public is uncomfortable with war so it has been trying to be different without proposing war. Telhami said that last Monday Romney gave a foreign policy speech, and before the speech his campaign managers leaked portions about Syria, saying, “We will try and support the Syrian opposition which has similar values as ours. And we might consider arming them with the help of our allies.” At 10:30 AM on the same day, Telhami released a poll that was televised all over the US which showed that only 22 percent of Americans supported arming the rebels in Syria. The next few days the Republicans did not mention the issue. Romney's running mate Paul Ryan in his debate with Vice President Joe Biden was asked several times about his policy on Syria, but he did not even once mention arming the rebels. Regarding Tuesday's second presidential debate, Telhami feels that Obama's campaign managers have to figure out a balance. “They tried with the Vice Presidential debate. It worked. I think it's a mixed strategy. Everybody expects the president to be more aggressive, sharper and more responsive to criticism,” said Telhami. He feels that if Obama wins the election, the prospects of aggressive diplomacy are much higher, and there is greater hope for the Middle East peace process which has stalled and failed for a number of reasons. “The base of the Republican party and Romney's advisers don't think that the Arab-Israel issue is important for the US. They don't think that the US can do much in the Middle East,” said Telhami, who served as a member of the US delegation to the trilateral US-Israeli-Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee, which was mandated by the Wye River Agreements and who has also served as an adviser to the United States Department of State. “Obama has a different view on the Middle East issue. And usually second-term presidents have fewer constraints; they are not looking over their shoulders; they don't worry about reelection.” “There's greater prospect for movement on Middle East issues with Obama,” said Telhami, who is in the Kingdom to give a series of lectures on how the American public perceives different issues and on the differences between Republicans and Democrats on major issues and policies. However, on the issues of Iran and Syria, he does not think much change will take place even if Romney is elected to the White House. “Maybe there will be a push on Iran. There will be more support for Israeli policy on Iran, and maybe more arming of Israel. If israel wants to go to war with Iran it doesn't need a green light from the White House. It knows that once it is at war, the US will support it.” Telhami, who has authored the best-selling book, “The Stakes: America and the Middle East”, said that the US is not very good at engineering democracies. “The US ought to support democracy but not through war. We must not be the principal element of change. People have to decide their own future. But those who want to be democratic, we have to support them.”
