As a television series backed by elder US diplomats attempts to change Arabs’ perception of the US, casual conversation with a few Egyptian friends reveals that even those intimately familiar with this country still harbor skepticism of America and its relationship with Israel.

The Sunday edition of the New York Times reported that “On the Road in America,” a 12 part series chronicling an RV tour of the US by four Arab twenty-somethings (three guys, one girl) during the summer of 2006 is set to air on the Sundance Channel.

The series was conceived “with the hope of showing Arab viewers in the Middle East a broader and more nuanced view of America than that seen in Hollywood exports.” It drew about 4.5 million viewers per episode when it was broadcast across the Middle East last year.

The show was produced by Layalina Productions, a non-profit that claims George Bush Sr., James Baker, and Henry Kissinger among the many dignitaries on its advisory board. The Sundance Channel is hoping to put the shoe on the other foot by showing American audiences four Westernized Arab youths doing their best Alexis de Tocqueville impersonation, offering candid interpretations of America filtered through their own culture and experiences.

But while such efforts are necessary and should be applauded, a few email exchanges with several friends of mine from high school in Cairo, Egypt indicate that much of the cynicism toward the US, in their minds, is the result of foreign policy and not wayward cultural exports.

It began as a form letter sent to people I knew were US-educated, had lived (or in some cases were born) here, and were now living in various parts of the Middle East. I asked two questions: 1) what are your thoughts on the current state of the Arab-Israeli conflict and 2) what do you think, or what are you hearing from other people, about the US elections?

I got responses from three Egyptians, each living in different areas of the Middle East, and was put in touch with a fourth woman who is not Arab, but attended the same high-school and is now doing graduate work on the conflict.

Below is what I assembled based on all four conversations.

The skepticism stems from the unassailable influence of the Jewish lobby over Washington and casts doubts among everyone I spoke with that Obama could successfully defy the likes of a pro-Israel powerhouse lobby such as the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

“The biggest problem Arabs have is the United States’ blind support for Israel,” said Tammer Azzouz, 28, a University of Maryland graduate living in Kuwait City.

“No matter what happens, this is always the root of the problem.”

Wael Omar saw Obama’s appearance at today’s AIPAC policy forum (along with McCain, Clinton, and most of the House and Senate) as a referendum on his attitude towards the entire Arab world.

“It could be a defining moment for him as far as which way the Arab news media will take him,” said Omar, 29, a filmmaker who attended Emerson College and currently resides in Cairo.

“They know he will be a friend of Israel, but to what extent is mainly their concern,” said Omar. “Common to attitudes in Europe, they think his being black is somehow an indication of his progressive politics, but it’s not clear whether they think that Obama is actually going to introduce the kinds of foreign policy changes that will make them change their views drastically,” he said.

Their lack of faith is tied to the US government’s silence as Israeli settlements expand into the West Bank and East Jerusalem beyond internationally sanctioned borders. The push for democratic elections in Palestine by the US and the withdrawal of aid after a Hamas victory compound the mistrust.

“You have generations that don’t remember a functional society,” said Magdalen Hess, a European-American who spent time growing up in East Jerusalem, where she saw her elementary school shut down for two years as Israeli tanks rumbled through the streets. She was able to enroll elsewhere because of her nationality, but her Palestinian classmates were not so lucky, she said.

Hess is now in Ramallah, where her parents lived until three months ago, continuing her graduate work on the role of international aid on the Arab-Israeli conflict. She speaks of how Israeli settlements and walls “cut deep within internationally recognized Palestinian territory” and cripple the commerce of those regions.

When the US turns a blind eye to the social and economic woes of the Palestinians and suspends aid to the democratically elected Hamas, “fissures develop between the Palestinian militant and the more moderate minded,” Hess said.

Typically, this creates a vacuum easily filled by radical organizations and their anti-American doctrines. In the case of Hamas, however, they also offer what Hess describes as “excellent health care” that could theoretically be attached to US aid instead.

“Aid can either reinforce or alleviate divisions,” she said. “In the case of withholding aid from Hamas, you’re clearly exacerbating divisions and further compounding Palestinians real and perceived sense of inequality with Israelis.”

The sense of betrayal runs thick among Palestinians who did “exactly what the US wanted” by holding elections and were “soundly punished as a result,” Hess said.

“So much for the utopia of American democracy,” said Azzouz, calling it an oxymoron that the US pushes for democracy in the region but would rather deal with a Saudi monarchy than a democratically elected Hamas.

On that front, Obama raised Arab and Israeli eyebrows alike with his commitment earlier in the primary season to meet with leaders of Hamas and Iran. He has since backed off the “unconditional” part of his diplomatic intentions and embarked on a PR campaign among Jewish voters to allay concerns over his willingness to talk with two entities that have openly called for the destruction of Israel.

By changing his tune, Obama is focusing squarely on securing the traditionally Democratic Jewish voting bloc, much to the dismay of those hoping he would be the linchpin for a renewed era of American-led peace brokerage.

And that hope is not exclusive to distraught Arabs following the US election.

A new lobbyist group called J-Street was formed to counteract AIPAC and other organizations that a significant amount of American Jews and Israelis view as counter-productive to achieving peace. J-Street bills themselves as “the political arm of the pro-Israel, pro-peace movement,” on their website.

“Helping the Palestinians achieve a viable, prosperous state is one of the most pro-Israel things an American politician can do,” said J-Street Exec. Director Jeremy Ben-Ami in a recent article in the Washington Post.

Ben-Ami asserts that “when the United States abandons the role of effective broker and acts only as Israel’s amen choir, as it has throughout Bush’s tenure, the United States dims Israel’s prospects of winning security through diplomacy.”

Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera features almost daily indictments of McCain, quoting him in one recent article as singing “Bomb, bomb Iran” to the tune of a Beach Boys song.  Al Jazeera also insists that a McCain presidency will equal four more years of Bush in their report on the White House blocking efforts supported by Israeli Jews to engage Hamas and Iran diplomatically.

Such stories receive far less coverage in the US media, according to Hashim Omran, 31, a Georgetown alum and businessman living in Dubai.

“If the American media had some balls, and if they showed the real opinion of progressive Israelis who want real peace (trust me they exist), the American people would overwhelmingly get behind an equal, two state solution,” Omran said.

“As long as the status quo remains, one state prospers in defiance of global public opinion, while a tortured people fall deeper into a vicious cycle of violence, chaos, and despair,” he said.

To them, Barack Obama, with his African decent, Arab-sounding middle name, and international life-experience growing up in Indonesia, represents the best hope of shattering the status quo in the 21st century. But it’s a long way to November, and a road paved with daily reminders of what the past eight years of American foreign policy has bestowed on the region.

“The majority of people here are cynical enough after eight years of Bush, a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Gharib, and all else that while they hope for a Democrat, they would bet that McCain will be the winner come November,” Wael Omar said.

“While the conversation is mainly dominated by Obama-ism, the Arabs feel it smarter that always, in the end, they should expect the worst.”

A glimpse of America through the eyes of their own countrymen, delivered straight to 4.5 million TV sets, may or may not alleviate some of the angst Middle Easterners feel toward the US.

It is where that show fails in reach, but succeeds in concept, that Barack Obama or John McCain needs to begin his mission: with peace, tolerance and understanding as the ultimate goals.