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MARCO WERMAN: I'm Marco Werman. This is The World. There are one and a half billion Muslims in the world and many have negative feelings about the United States. President Obama would like to change at least few Muslim hearts and minds this week when he travels to Saudi Arabia and Egypt. But Mr. Obama has a more concrete goal that merely brushing up America's image in the region. He wants to move Israeli's and Palestinians a notch closer to restarting negotiations for peace. The World's Katy Clark examines his prospects.

KATY CLARK: In an interview with the BBC, President Obama expressed optimism that stalled peace talks in the Middle East can resume. The BBC interviewer pointed out that Israel has just rejected the President's call for a halt to Jewish settlements in the West Bank. Mr. Obama reassured him that it's still early in the conversation.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: I've had one meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu. I think that we have not seen a set of potential gestures from other Arab states or from the Palestinians that might deal with some Israeli concerns.

CLARK: Mr. Obama said he believes some progress could be made if all parties follow the road map approach laid out in 2003, and if the surrounding Arab states can encourage Palestinian economic and political development. That's a lot of ifs but Mr. Obama seemed undeterred.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: One of the things that, you know, in a 24/7 news cycle is very difficult to encourage is patience, and diplomacy is always a matter of a long hard slog. It's never a matter of quick results.

CLARK: In another interview, this time with NPR, the President was a bit tougher on America's traditional ally, Israel. He suggested that the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel requires some tough love.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Part of being a good friend is being honest and I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests.

CLARK: Even heavily veiled criticism of Israel is rarely heard from the White House but Tamara Witees with the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution says Mr. Obama chose his words and the timing carefully.

TAMARA WITEES: Right now in the weeks leading up to his trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia perhaps he's focused a bit more pressure on Israel that may be calculated in part to create an environment for his trip that will be most conducive when he sits down with the King of Saudi Arabia to say, "Look, you can see I've been tough on the Israelis. What you going to do for me?"

CLARK: The help of Arab states in the region is especially important now because the Palestinian leadership remains divided. The militant Islamic group Hamas controls Gaza while a weak Fatah Party rules the West Bank. Joel Peters is a Middle East expert at Virginia Tech. He says the Obama Administration isn't going to get very far on Middle East peace if it doesn't also work to help bring Fatah and Hamas together.

JOEL PETERS: One can't just sort of say to Israel, "Stop settlement freeze, commit to a two-state solution and everything will be just fine." One has to have a Palestinian leadership, Palestinian politics, and that means bringing in Hamas into the process.

CLARK: With so many hurdles ahead, one might wonder why President Obama is adding Middle East peace to his list of priorities now. Many before him tried and failed.

DANIELLE PLETKA: One does get the sense that we've seen in this show before and that it didn't end well and that we're now in unhappy rerun.

CLARK: That's Danielle Pletka of the American Enterprise Institute. She credits President Obama for committing to a Middle East Peace. She worries, though, that he believes solving the Israeli/Palestinian problem will solve all of America's other problems in the region. Pletka says that's a common misunderstanding that confuses cause and effects.

PLETKA: Well, if Israel and the Palestinians weren't fighting, then Hamas might not have been created then. Hezbollah might not exist and the Iranians may not have a nuclear program, and I think that's a rather miopic way of looking at the region and that's also rather a self-serving way of looking at the region.

CLARK: Still, Marina Ottoway of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace says the Israelis and Palestinians need to start talking again soon.

MARINA OTTOWAY: The longer we wait, the more the situation is going to deteriorate. So no matter how bad the situation is now, there is no reason to believe that it will be better if we wait.

CLARK: President Obama departs tonight for Saudi Arabia. He'll make as much anticipated address to the Muslim world in Egypt on Thursday. For The World, this is Katy Clark.

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