The United States’ longest presidential campaign ever was hard fought up to the last minute by Senators Barack Obama of Illinois and John McCain of Arizona. Long lines of voters promised a record turn-out of more than 130 million.
The next US president will have to grapple urgently with seismic dilemmas left over from the Bush administration, notably the global economic crisis, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and, at some point, the long-lingering Middle East conflict.
If elected, Obama would make history as the first dark-skinned president in the White House, but his foreign policies as distinct from his electioneering rhetoric are still an enigma. Although many of his predecessors shed their campaign backers and picked a new team upon entering the Oval Office, still it is remembered that a hard left Chicago group sponsored and largely funded his run.
Many Israeli-American voters voted for McCain as a safer choice for Israel, fearing that pro-Arab figures would step out from behind Obama’s Middle East campaign advisers and be installed in key positions in his administration. Aware of this, Dennis Ross, Middle East envoy under Democratic and Republican presidents, and Martin Indyk, former ambassador to Israel, issued pre-election statements assuring Israel they had nothing to fear from Obama.
However, Rob Malley, who is in close rapport with Syrian president Bashar Assad and the radical Hamas headquarters in Damascus, is still around. Although Obama claimed earlier to have dropped this controversial figure from his team of advisers, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources confirm that he continued to use Malley discreetly to liaise with Arab leaders as his representative.
A lesser known fact is that Malley is a personal friend of Dr. Samir Thaki, Syria’s top negotiator in the indirect talks with Israel brokered by Turkey. He played a shadowy but firm role in those talks under Obama’s policy guideline to back Damascus’ push for a complete Israel withdrawal from the Golan. This ultimatum kept the Bush administration from backing those negotiations and explains why Assad preferred to stall until a new US president was elected.
If Israel’s transitional prime minister Ehud Olmert goes along with this line – he is still weighing the option - it would represent Israel’s biggest concession ever to an Arab state and hamper the chances of his successor, foreign minister Tzipi Livni, to lead their Kadima party to victory in Israel’s February 10, 2009 general election.
Israel’s opposition has said it would not be bound by any such concessions. However its endorsement by Obama, if he is elected US president, would represent his first step for ushering in his new Middle East policy based on drawing Damascus out of its alliance with Iran. Israel would then find itself on a collision course with Washington in the early days of a potential Obama presidency.
