It’s official: Arab journalists don’t know what to think. A President gives his first interview to al-Arabiya—a major Middle Eastern network—and offers an olive branch the Muslim and Arab worlds. It sounds almost too good to be true. Some think that it is. Despite President Obama’s earnest efforts, Hope and Change have not yet penetrated the Arab press. But fortunately, most are willing to see what he does before rendering final judgments.

Since Obama’s interview on Monday with Dubai-based, Saudi-sponsored al-Arabiya, press members across the Arab world has struggled with how to react to his conciliatory tone and apparent eagerness to dialogue with all factions in the region. Nearly everyone wants to like him. Certainly his comments to al-Arabiya gave them a lot to like.

There was of course the inevitable bragging. Al-Arabiya wasted no time in covering its own coverage. The man who interviewed Obama, Hisham Melham, even gushed about how impressed the President was with Melham’s knowledge of Chicago blues artists: “We talked in detail about Blues singers and the importance of Blues as part of Chicago's cultural heritage,” said Melham, eager to discus his new pal.

A Qatar-based religious news service, Islam Online, favorably compared Obama’s approach to President Bush’s, saying that it “pledges a ‘new way forward’ in America’s relation to the Muslim world.” It even used Obama’s words in its headline: “America [is] No Muslim’s Enemy.” The upcoming visit to an as-yet unnamed Muslim capital may not help America’s relations with the Middle East politically, but the President appears to be already making inroads at a religious level.

Aijaz Zaka Syed, a Dubai journalist, was particularly over-the-top with Obama’s interview. In a commentary published in al-Khaleej and Arab News, two leading English-language papers in the Persian Gulf, he prattled: “I feel eternally indebted to [President Bush] because without suffering him, we wouldn't have known the true value of his successor and the phenomenal change he embodies…I dare to hope that Obama could indeed break this endless cycle of violence in the Holy Land.”

Nevertheless, the overall tone tends toward the incredulous. Ramzy Baroud, a U.S.-based Palestinian, wrote an article that also appeared in both al-Khaleej and Arab News. He criticized Obama for reiterating his support for Israeli security and moving too slowly—in his view—in the closing of Guantanamo Bay. Even the ebullient Aijaz Zaka Syed bemoaned the power of the pro-Israel lobby in the United States, somewhat unfairly suggesting that it “has plotted for decades to defeat all sincere attempts to end this conflict.”

Some of the coverage damns Obama with faint praise. A report by Jordanian news service al-Bawaba only briefly mentions the President’s outreach to the region and ends by stating that he made “no mention of the suffering of Palestinians, the Gaza war, or the continuing Israeli blockade of the beleaguered territory.” Hardly unbiased stuff. The skepticism comes from decades of perceived—and actual—American bias toward the Israelis, but also from need of many in the Arab world to see something concrete before their views of the United States improve. Sameera Aziz of the Saudi Gazette perhaps puts it the most directly when she says: “We welcome you, Mr. Obama, and your positive approach, but please, act before it’s too late.” The upside for the administration—and hopefully for the peace process—is that many in the Arab world seem to be willing to give the President a shot.

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