WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush on Wednesday said it was important for the United States to counter the way it is portrayed in the Arab media, whose criticism he said was partly due to Washington's strong relations with Israel.
Bush this week nominated one of his closest advisers, Karen Hughes, as undersecretary of state for public diplomacy to burnish the US image abroad, nearly two years after the invasion of Iraq, which hurt Washington's reputation in Arab and Muslim countries.
"I think we had the image of wanting to fight Muslims, that the United States stood squarely against a religion as opposed to a society which welcomes all religions, and in fact we're fighting a handful of people relative to the Muslim population that wanted to -- I used to say hijack the religion," he said.
"People need to understand we're a compassionate nation and we care deeply about suffering, regardless of where people live," he said, pointing to the United States' relief efforts in tsunami-stricken Asian countries.
"It is very important for us to have a message that counteracts some of the messages coming out of some of the Arab media, some of it coming out partly because of our strong and unwavering friendship with Israel," Bush told a news conference.
"You know, Israel is an easy target for some of the media in the Middle East, and if you're a friend of Israel, you become a target. And since we're not going to abandon our alliance with Israel, you know, there was some churning in the press and there was some unhelpful things being said," he said.
03/16/2005 17:09 GMT