U.S. Trying to Market Itself to Young Arabs
Whitney Houston, Bette Midler, combined with news at the top of the radio hour, as a way to sell the United States in a skeptical Arab world?

Nice try but try again, says Mr. Sabbagh of Washington's effort to convince skeptical young Arabs of America's good intentions through a new radio station that combines pop music with news snippets and is now broadcasting in five Arab nations.

"You cannot create a product out of an image," said Mr. Sabbagh, the director of Middle East Marketing and Research and who has plugged cigarettes, colas and cars across the region. "You can only promote a product if you have one."

The hostility of young Arabs to the United States is based on policies, he said, and unless Washington modifies its stand on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and backs off unilateral action against Saddam Hussein of Iraq, the administration faces an uphill sell, he said. While American diplomacy might be influencing some moderate governments, the people remain unconvinced.

Public opinion surveys in Egypt and Jordan — rarely published in these countries but reviewed by officials and foreign diplomats — show that many people feel under assault by American policies on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and now on Iraq, American and Arab officials who have seen the surveys said.

The intensity of those feelings makes trying to sell the United States far more complicated than playing music and offering scholarships, several said.

Adding to the difficulties is the limited array of tools available to the State Department. Gone are the days of handsome cultural centers with libraries run by the United States Information Agency in foreign capitals. The independent agency, deemed an unneeded relic of the cold war, was shut in 1999 and melded into the State Department.

Here in Amman, for example, a popular American cultural center at a major traffic circle was closed. It was replaced by an auditorium and small library in the new United States Embassy, which is away from the city center and built like a fortress. The heavy security searches to enter the building have discouraged Jordanians from visiting.

As a substitute for the stand-alone libraries, the State Department is urging embassies in the region to open "American corners" in university libraries and other institutions. Such a "corner" is being tried in Bahrain, but for the most part embassies have resisted the idea because of its limited impact, American diplomats said.

Another program that is facing problems is the $25 million Middle East Partnership Initiative, devised by Liz Cheney, the daughter of the vice president and a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Near East bureau. The program includes scholarships enabling students from the Arab world to come to the United States.

But with severe new restrictions on visas, particularly for men from Arab countries between the ages of 18 and 45, the scope of the study program is probably limited, a State Department official said.

"This will need a long lead time," the official said.

One idea of Ms. Beers's — to provide commercial-length spots to Arab television stations about how Muslims in the United States are respected — has been put on hold, the official said. There was some nervousness, he said, that the favorable portrayal of American Muslims would be seen as "pandering."

Mr. Sabbagh, the market researcher, said he supported showing the role of Muslims in American life, provided the portrayals were believable. "This would be very useful," he said. "But it's all in the execution. It has to be real-life situations. That way you get credibility."

He also suggested that Washington try to put a more human face on events in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He was sure, he said, that the Agency for International Development was doing worthwhile work to help the Palestinians. That should be talked about, he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/16/international/middleeast/16ARAB.html