Obama’s Middle East Strategy: Containment

Barack Obama’s Middle East policy is likely to change. Since this wave of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Obama has been silence because he has not yet assumed his post, and that it is not appropriate for him to meddle into the incumbent presidential affairs. Nevertheless, there are indications to show that the gravity of Obama’s Mideast policy is likely to shift from the Israeli-Palestinian issue, which has been haunting the U.S. for half a century, to the containment of the rise of Muslim radicalism.

In the past, the U.S. diplomatic thinking was that, if Israel and Palestine were to reach peace, there will be no excuses for the Arab world to reject Israel as a legitimate country. However, since the Palestinian militant group Hamas took control of Gaza, letting Gaza fall into the hands of anti-American sphere of influence of Iran and Syria, the U.S. conventional diplomatic thinking has been challenged. Iran and Syria also supported the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

What is worth pondering is that the support of Palestine by some Arab countries has undergone subtle changes. Fearing that Iran’s influence in the Middle East is on the rise and even becoming a nuclear power, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia took a slow response to Israel’s attack against Gaza, without exerting strong pressure and requesting Israel to cease fire. This indicates that there are cracks in the unity of the Arab world.

Even Iran and Syria are acting in a manner of self-restraint. Obama has made himself known that after taking office, the U.S. will resume diplomatic exchanges with the hostile countries, a statement which is seen as a gain, not a loss for Iran and Syria. Therefore, they are not willing to venture into the forefront of Israeli-Palestinian conflict in support of Hamas.

Therefore, diplomatic analysts said that U.S. policy needs a thorough change to discard the pursuit of peace for Israel and Palestine, an effort which has been wearing out the U.S. for the past decades, because no matter if governments of Israel and Palestine reach a peace pact or not, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and other militant groups will never step aside, and the U.S. will never have dealings with them through diplomatic channels.

Obama’s administration probably can start from economic and security aspects to improve the lives of the middle-class of the Arab world, so as to contain the growth of Muslim radicalism.