What will the new American President Barack Obama’s Middle Eastern policy be? In his campaign the Democrat’s candidate had to work quite hard to persuade Israeli public opinion as well as a significant number of American pro-Israel opinion leaders. Some have reproached Obama for a statement made in March 2007, which they considered excessively pro-Palestine. (“Nobody is suffering more than the Palestinian people”), but the thing that more than any other fomented Republican propaganda was Barack’s old friendship with personalities who had been tough on the State of Israel’s policies. Then there were people like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor, or Rashid Khalidi, a professor at Columbia University as well as his readiness to dialogue with Iran, which worried even more those voters who even had problems with his middle name, Hussein.
The task that awaits Barack in the Middle East is particularly complicated, above all when considering the weakness of the Israeli and Palestinian governments. There is one datum that can today reassure the Israelis and help to sweep away the gossip of the electoral campaign. According to the exit polls, 77% of Jews in America voted for Obama, hence 3% more than those who voted for the 2004 Democrat candidate, John Kerry. This instantly demolishes Republican propaganda concerning the Democrat candidate’s presumed anti-Israeli positions. “American Jews resoundingly rejected the two-year, multimillion dollar campaign of baseless smears and fear waged against Obama by the right wing of our community", said Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of the J Street lobby group: "We can only hope – he added – that these results put to rest for good the myth that fear and smear campaigns, particularly around Israel, can be an effective political weapon in the Jewish community".
The first post-electoral act by the President Elect has contributed, if this was still necessary, to reassure those who have Israel’s destiny at heart. Obama has chosen as his chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a Jewish congressman who is very sensitive to the Israeli cause. "Rahm – admitted Ira Forman, executive director of the National Jewish Democratic Council – has certainly never been accused of being too naive or not decisive in his analysis of these types of issues”. Although Jewish Americans are convinced, it seems that Obama must still earn the complete trust of Israeli public opinion. “The average Israeli is very suspicious of Obama – explained veteran Israeli pollster Rafi Smith – If the U.S. election had been held in Israel, John McCain would have won in a landslide. Even his middle name, ‘Hussein,’ convinces people he is less pro-Israeli and more close to the Arabs, to Muslims."
The authoritative Rami Khouri, director of the Issam Fares Institute at the American University in Beirut, has however emphasised how the election of Obama will manage to improve America’s image in the Arab world, thereby weakening the propaganda of extremists and Al Qaeda. But it is not only a question of image. Obama’s past pro-Palestine statements, added to the new pro-Israel ones (such as the words spoken during the election campaign to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee), lead to believe that at last America will have a balanced policy for the Middle East. It is hoped that the United States will return to play the role of an honest broker between Israelis and Palestinians. In theory the Obama presidency’s equidistance offers greater guarantees of peace to both parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To the Palestinians (who will perhaps receive greater respect, but will no longer be able to hide behind the excuse of American factionalism), and to the Israelis (who will no longer have Washington as their spokesperson or a counterproductive protector of their own mistakes). Will this be enough to bring peace? Obviously not. The destiny of Israel and Palestine remains as ever in the hands of their respective leadership.
Translation by Francesca Simmons