Middle-East: President Obama walks a tight rope

By Philip Fernando in Los Angeles

(June 06, Los Angeles, Sri Lanka Guardian) Waving an olive branch in one hand and sending air force drones to deep parts of Afghan-Pakistan territory, President Barack Obama walks a tight rope in Mid-Eastern affairs. Even by his dexterous buoyancy standards, this is no bungee jump but a precipitous risk.

Obama seemed to think that there is no inherent Israel's right to "natural growth" of its settlements in Arab East Jerusalem and on the West Bank. A new day and new peace is dawning, said one Egypt daily. No more axis of evil talk or a regime change. Neither will there be a “green light" for war on Hezbollah in Lebanon and on Hamas in Gaza, said another analyst.

In order to carry on this talk about a new beginning and mutual respect between USA and 1.3 billion Muslims, there has to be a tremendous amount of give and take between all parties. With Obama in Cairo, it was all about "a new beginning" and "mutual respect" between the United States and the Muslim world anticipating some early success in Afghanistan and firmer hold on the decaying situation in Pakistan.

You can say good bye to any pre-emptive U.S. strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Obama believes that Iran "should have the right to access peaceful nuclear power if it complies with its responsibilities under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty." It is true that Iran may not have gone beyond the NPT, so the probability that Tehran would be able to provide solid assurances it has no clandestine weapons program may be high.

George W Bush outsourced Mid-east policy to Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, Obama has hands on policy and is confronting Bibi Netanyahu an ultimatum: settlements must stop. Halt all settlement growth, now, and come back to me with your plan for a Palestinian state.

Netanyahu may have to eat is election pledges of never negotiating with Hamas, allowing a Palestinian state. The next few months are crucial or the Middle East. United States is saying for the first time that settlements are an impediment and an independent Palestinian state indispensable to peace. Obama won 78 percent of the Jewish vote at the 2008 election. The perspective on the hardened stance about settlements has changed. Obama could argue that he better represents the Jewish community in the United States than the Israel lobby.

Next weekend, at the Iranian elections, President Ahmadinejad faces strong opposition. If the moderate Mir-Hossein Moussavi wins, the possibility of a U.S-Iranian detente rises dramatically.

-Sri Lanka Guardian