US President Barack Obama has taken the Middle East by surprise with the speed of his diplomacy but his first statement on the conflict between Arabs and Israelis was strikingly similar to old US policies. Commentators had expected Obama to take his time before turning his attention to the Middle East, concentrating instead on the US economy and domestic concerns. On his second day, Obama made telephone calls to Washington's long-standing allies in the Middle East - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah II of Jordan. “It took two longs days before Obama dispelled any notions of a change in US Middle East policy,” said As'ad Abu Khalil, Lebanese-born and pro-Palestinian professor of political science at California State Univerity. “Obama's speech was quite something. It was like sprinkling sulphuric acid on the wounds of the children in Gaza,” he added. But Obama's diplomatic activism and promises of engagement on Arab-Israeli conflicts does at least address one of the conservatives' main grievances about former President George W. Bush - that he ignored the conflict for too long and never put his full weight behind any Middle East peace plan. Obama gave full backing to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his Western-backed prime minister. He repeated the controversial conditions which the Quartet of external powers in 2006 for dealing with Hamas – recognising Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. Some analysts had speculated that Obama might bring a new approach to dealings with Hamas and other Middle East forces which retain the right to armed struggle against Israel. Obama even linked ending the Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza - one of the roots of the recent fighting - to restoring Abbas's control of Gaza's borders. That could perpetuate the present blockade for months or years to come. US reconstruction aid for Gaza will also be channeled exclusively through Abbas, who has no control over Gaza. The new president followed the traditional US approach of relying on Egypt to mediate between Israel and Hamas and to stop Hamas in Gaza receiving weapons through smuggling. But Egypt failed to bring Hamas and Israel together on an agreed ceasefire and Israel says that Cairo's anti-smuggling efforts along the Gaza-Egypt border fall far short. Hamas dismissed Obama's first venture into Middle East policy making as more of the same failed U.S. strategy. “It seems Obama is trying to repeat the same mistakes that George Bush made without taking into consideration Bush's experience that resulted in the explosion of the region,” the Hamas representative in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, told Al Jazeera. The pro-Syrian Lebanese newspaper As-Safir added: “The new American President inspired by Bush's positions ... Obama continues the Israeli war on the Palestinian people.” “(Obama) disappointed many hopes set on his balance and moderate views towards the Arab-Israeli conflict, since his positions allows Israel to continue what it began in its last war on Gaza,” the newspaper added.
