The view from the Middle East

Capital J

By Uriel Heilman · November 4, 2008

How is the U.S. election being seen in the Middle East?

Arabs see Obama's "change" as more of the same, Al Arabiya reports.
Israel's daily Ha'aretz backs Obama for president in a thinly veiled editorial.
No American president, especially one whose middle name is Hussein, will voice too much sympathy for the Palestinian cause, writes Scott MacLeod in a Time blog.
Polls notwithstanding, many Israelis just don't believe Obama will win. Dan Raviv explains why in The Daily Beast.
The best president for Israel is the man best suited to rein in the Iranian menace, The Jerusalem Post writes in an Election Day editorial.
It will take more than just a change of face in the White House for Iran-U.S. ties to improve, writes the Middle East editor of the U.K. Guardian.
(UPDATED) The Obama campaign denied a report in Lebanon's Al-Akhbar that said Obama privately told the Palestinian Authority's leadership that he "supports the rights of the Palestinians to East Jerusalem, as well as their right to a stable, sovereign state," but that he asked that his remarks be kept secret. Obama adviser Dennis Ross and P.A. president Mahmoud Abbas, who were at the meeting, said the report is completely false. Chalk up another demerit for Lebanese reporting.