WASHINGTON – What does the Arab world really think about the Mideast conflict?

That was the subject of a July 25 op-ed piece in the Washington Post by Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland.

The basis of Telhami's piece is a public opinion poll he commissioned through Zogby International in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Lebanon. His conclusion in analyzing the survey is that Arab leaders may be underestimating the ferocity of public concern with the escalating Israeli-Arab conflict.

"Most Arabs are shamed by their inability to help the Palestinians and feel personally insulted when the Palestinians seem slighted," he writes. "The way the United States behaves toward the Palestinians is taken as a message to all Arabs."

Telhami found that about 60 percent of the public reported that the Palestinian issue "is the single most important issue" to them personally. He also concludes that while Arab public opinion is strong on the subject, the populace is not necessarily prepared to go to war with Israel over the conflict.

But left out of the equation by both Telhami and Zogby is one important dynamic: Arab public opinion doesn't drive action by Arab leaders. There are no free republics among the Arab nations surveyed.

As pointed out by James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal, using Freedom House's annual survey of freedom in the world as a guide, only Kuwait among the nations surveyed is ranked even "partly free." Egypt, Lebanon, which is occupied by an Arab neighbor, and the Emirates are all ranked "not free." Saudi Arabia scores even lower in political rights and civil rights.

This context raises three questions unaddressed by Telhami and Zogby:

1. Are public opinion poll respondents free to express themselves in these countries?

2. To what extent does the leadership of these countries shape the public opinion through control of the media, the schools and other cultural institutions?

3. What difference does public opinion make in an authoritarian or totalitarian country?

Often people ask me if Arab public opinion – both in the Arab world and among Arabs living in the West – is as solidly anti-Israel as it appears in international media portrayals. The question is one that cannot be answered with any degree of assurance as Arab leaders do not submit themselves to the will of the people.

Clearly in police states like those named above, the public is not free to express opinions that might run counter to the official government line. Therefore, any such survey of public opinion will not be scientifically accurate or valid.

Secondly, these regimes devote a significant amount of resources to propaganda. And, despite the Internet, satellite television and short-wave radio, unofficial, alternative information sources are at a premium.

Lastly, since meaningful free elections are largely unknown in the Arab world, public opinion is worth about as much as this Zogby poll, which is to say nothing.

There's another overlooked angle on this story. It is always in the interest of an authoritarian regime to have an enemy. In the case of the Arab world, that enemy is Israel. It is the one reality that unites a very divided Arab world.

Yet, all of this context was ignored by Telhami, Zogby and the Washington Post, which published the opinion.

That's not unusual, of course. Context and historical realities are often ignored in news coverage and media analysis of the Middle East. Still, I have to admit, it is surprising even to me when a "scholar," with a prestigious title, draws such sweeping conclusions without any context, without any connection to historical realities and without any attempt to distinguish the politics of Arab police states from those of Western-style open societies.

So, coming full circle, what does the Arab world really think about the Mideast conflict? I don't pretend to know for sure. I have no doubts that public opinion has been manipulated by years of official propaganda. But what I can say is that I am hearing – largely through e-mail communications – from a growing number of Arabs, both in the Mideast as well as in the West, who are beginning to understand their governments are lying to them.

Related offer:

"Israel: A Nation is Born," a 5-part video documentary series that tells gripping story of the country's emergence, is available at WorldNetDaily's online store.