CAIRO: The priority of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is now at its highest in Egypt, according to research by Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institute. The study indicated that 88 percent of Egyptians rated the issue as the most important issue or in their top three. Although the issue of Palestine remains central to Egyptian public opinion, there have been several shifts in its importance since 2003, as Telhami found in his research titled, "Does the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict Still Matter? In a study of eight countries in the Middle East - including, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Morocco, Jordan and the UAE - Telhami set out to determine if recent events, such as the war in Iraq and the 2006 war in Lebanon, have pulled the focus away from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, he concluded that "the Arab-Israeli issue remains the prism through, which most Arabs view the world. The results were based on six public opinion surveys, from 2003-2008, conducted with the cooperation of Zogby International. In Egypt since 2006, the importance of the conflict has risen to a high number of 88 percent. The lowest number in Egypt was in 2005, when the importance of the conflict was at 49 percent. Telhami found that there is a correlation in the rise and decline of importance depending on two factors: the degree of violence at the time of the survey, and the state of relations between the United States and Palestine. Telhami cites reasons such as the election of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, and the sanctions against the Hamas-led government, as reawakening interest in the issue. In 2006, 32 percent of Egyptians supported Hamas. In 2008, that number has descended to 15 percent, Telhami found. Views of the US Role in the conflict have also shifted since 2003. In 2006, 65 percent of Egyptians said that "brokering a comprehensive Middle East peace with Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 border and establishing a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital would most improve views of the US, according to Telhami's research. Second to that was the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, which 23 percent of Egyptians said would most improve views of the US. These numbers shifted in 2008, with the importance of US brokering comprehensive Middle East peace descending to 45 percent, and the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq increasing to 45 percent. In addition, 51 percent said that the withdrawal of US troops from the Arabian Peninsula was the action that would most change views of the US.
