Amb Marc Ginsberg: "McCain/Palin - R.I.P. Courtesy of the Middle East"

[understandinglife]

Yes. The whole of humanity are watching, America. One important example is cogently summarized by .

Having just gotten off the plane from the Middle East, one thing is for certain: whether you are pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian or pro-whatever, there is hardly a soul who is not rooting for a big Obama victory on Tuesday (except for extremist settlers and extremist Islamists) .

The obsession with our election is genuine and genuinely welcome. Israelis anticipate an Obama administration that will be back in the business of untying the gordian knot that characterizes a peace process on life support (remember Bush promised at the Annapolis Summit to produce an Israeli-Palestinian agreement before his term ends...yep, just another broken pledge on the resume of Condi's Rice's shattered legacy that has left the region even deeper in a hole).

Palestinians (and dare I say most Israelis) are hopeful that even if the next Israeli election produces another Likud government under Netanyahu, that just the sheer velocity of Obama's positive policy changes in the Middle East will compel Netanyahu to succumb to the urgent need to put a two-state solution onto the express rails. Indeed, an Obama election has the capacity to positively impact, however indirectly, the outcome of both Israeli and Palestinian elections early next year. What wonderful tonic for a region where extremists on both sides will try to influence the election to their own worst devices.

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Surely, the list of challenges and obstacles the a new American president faces in the Middle East are daunting, and too numerous to go through here: Iraq, Lebanon, Hamas, Al Qaeda, oil exports, Iran, etc. after chilling etc. But there is considerable room to change the dynamics of a region caught in neoconservative hell.

Yes. We. Will.

[LeftishBrit]

1. Interesting. Hope Obama helps to achieve something in the ME!

Ginsberg sounds intelligent and informed and I hope his hopeful note is correct. At any rate, any American politician has to be better for the region than Palin with her Armageddon obsession.

[understandinglife]

2. I expect that the team Obama has already assembled to focus on the ME is formidable.

[puebloknot]

3. Heartening to consider that support for Israel ...

... is not just a looney right-wing "Christian" wet dream of the return of an avenging god -- their god and their revenge, of course.

Obama has the respect and the international bona fides to exert major influence on the Middle East, with an end game of ushering in a reasonably peaceful existence for all the parties to the many conflicts there.

I voted early for Obama yesterday. I stood in a voting booth and as I filled in the oval next to Obama's name with ink, I just lost it. I started to cry -- for the long eight years of stress I have personally endured over the takeover of our country by radical fascist elements, and with a consciousness that my wait for change fades into nothingness when compared to the long wait for justice endured by African Americans and other "minorities," though their contributions to this country have not been minor.

Yes, we sure as hell will, no matter how long it takes!