The Obama Administration: Agency for Continuity or Change in the United States Foreign Policy toward Israel and the Middles East? Sehlare Makgetlaneng What will be the nature of the Obama administration’s policy toward Israel and the Middle East? Will it abandon the strategic value of continuity in the United States foreign policy by crafting and executing substantial policy changes? While it is true that history does not repeat itself, the past may sometimes be read as a reliable guide to the future. Obama’s campaign statements offer insight into what we should expect from his administration. Hilary Clinton as Secretary of State has already confirmed that the Obama administration’s policy toward the Middle East and Israel will be characterised by continuity, not substantial meaningful changes. Barack Hussein Obama himself has made statements confirming this reality. His administration, despite his rhetoric of change, will, find justifications for supporting Israel. He regards Israel as the special strategic ally of the United States. After remarking in Iowa in 2007 that “nobody has suffered more than the Palestinian people,” Obama was criticised by a member of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), formerly known as the American Zionist Committee for Public Affairs, for not supporting Israel. Responding to this criticism, he expanded his statement to read that “Nobody has suffered more than the Palestinian people from the failure of the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel.” Responding to the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s criticism of the United States policy toward Israel, he maintained that Israel is an innocent victim of external forces in the Middle East conflict. Addressing the AIPAC Forum on Foreign Policy in Chicago in March 2007, he maintained that Wright “expressed a profoundly distorted view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.” His “view is that the United States’ special relationship with Israel obligates us to be helpful to them in the search for credible partners with whom they can make peace, while also supporting Israel in defending itself against enemies sworn to its destruction.” This is his support and dedication to the special relationship between the United States and Israel. Obama over-emphasised during his campaign that the United States should talk to every important state actor without preconditions. Does this general principle apply to the Middle East? In
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2006 he blamed Hezbollah for the war with Israel. He refused to join the appeals for Israel to accept a ceasefire. In April 2008 he criticised Jimmy Carter, a leading critic of the Israeli Palestinian policy whose involvement in foreign policy affairs as a former president is unprecedented in the history of the United States, for talking to Hamas. His rhetoric of change does not apply to the United States policy toward Israel. The statement in his victory speech that to “those who seek peace and security we will support you” will be used in supporting Israel. His other statement in his victory speech that to “those who would tear the world apart we will destroy you” will be used in justifying the United States policy of containment for the Middle East and the South in general. On 4 June 2007, Obama in his speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee maintained that “Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided.” He was articulating his subscription to the “Undivided Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel for all Eternity” thesis. According to Uri Avnery, the Israel journalist and former member of Knesset, this controversial statement was scandalous in that “No Palestinian, no Arab, no Muslim will make peace with Israel if the Haramal-Sharif compound, one of the three holiest places of Islam and the most outstanding symbol of Palestinian nationalism, is not transferred to Palestinian sovereignty. That is one of the core issues of the conflict.” Obama’s statement in his Inaugural Address that his administration will “seek a new way forward based on mutual interests and mutual respect” with Arabs and Muslims is basically addressed to Arab and Muslim rulers. Obama has been basically repeating this statement since his inauguration. This does not mean that his administration will execute policy toward the Middle East fundamentally different from that of the previous administrations. It is of strategic importance for the United States to cement its relations with Arab and Muslim rulers and to be seen being friendly toward Arabs and Muslims as well as advancing their interests for pursuing its strategic and tactical objectives in the region including its support to Israel. The issue of managing the strategic imperative of protecting access to oil of the Middle East and advancing the interests of Israel is the challenge previous administrations faced. The issue of preventing the Palestinian organised opposition to the Israeli policy actions against Pales-