Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Arab and Muslim leaders sent their congratulations to U.S. President-elect Barack Obama on Wednesday. They also seized on Obama’s campaign promise to bring about “change,” hoping it will bring a shift in American policy in the Middle East.
 
Israeli leaders also congratulated Obama, although many here do not want a dramatic U.S. shift in Middle East policy.
 
Obama has pledged his support for the Jewish State and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, but some here have said they would be more comfortable with the foreign policy experience and tough security stance of Sen. John McCain.
 
Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who heads the ruling Kadima party, hailed Obama’s election as a “mark of merit for American democracy.”
 
During Obama’s visit to Israel last summer, “the people of Israel were impressed by his commitment to the peace and security of Israel. Israel looks forward to continued close strategic cooperation with the new administration, the new president and the U.S. Congress, in order to continue to strengthen the lasting special relationship between our two countries,” Livni said.
 
She also thanked Sen. John McCain for his longstanding friendship toward Israel.
 
Rightwing Israeli Likud opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu, who is competing against Livni to become Israel’s next prime minister in just a few months, telegrammed Obama to congratulate him.
 
“You and the American people have brought about a historic change,” Netanyahu wrote. “You’ve reminded the world what the U.S. symbolizes -- the hope and promise of a better future.”  Netanyahu said he was convinced that Israel and the U.S. would work together “for peace, security and prosperity in our region and a better future for us all.”
 
Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert congratulated Obama for his “impressive and historic victory” and said he had demonstrated “his skill and leadership.” He also said there was “no doubt” that the special ties between Israel and the U.S. would be strengthened under the Obama administration.
 
Israeli President Shimon Peres, who seemingly endorsed Obama when he was here in the summer, telling him to be a great president, sent him a note that read: “The world needs a great leader. It is in your making. It is in our prayers. God bless you.”
 
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated Obama on behalf of the Palestinian people, saying he hoped the new administration would make peace efforts one of its top priorities.
 
Abbas hopes Obama “will speed up efforts to achieve peace, particularly since a resolution to the Palestinian problem and the Israeli-Arab conflict is key to world peace,” Abbas’ spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said, according to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.
 
“We expect change and we hope that that will bring peace for us,” Abbas said.
 
Fawzi Barhum, a Hamas spokesman, called on Obama to establish relations with the terrorist group and urged Obama to learn from “mistakes” of previous U.S. administrations, including that of President George W. Bush, which had “destroyed Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine,” he said.
 
“He (Obama) must improve U.S. ties with the rest of the world rather than wave the big American stick,” Barhum was quoted as saying. “We want him to support the Palestinian cause, or at least not to be biased towards the Israeli occupation. We have no problem establishing normal relations with the United States to explain our just cause.”
 
Hamas, which is sworn to the destruction of Israel, is on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. The U.S., Israel, the European Union and United Nations have said they would establish ties with Hamas only if it recognizes Israel, abandons terrorism, and abides by previous agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
 
High expectations
 
Governments throughout the Middle East wasted no time in voicing their expectations for change in American policy in the region.
 
Amr Moussa, secretary general of the 22-nation Arab League, said the Middle East needs an American policy “based on honest brokership” to press for a nuclear-free Middle East. He accused Washington of double standards in this regard.
 
Moussa stressed the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that “strong intervention” was needed by “the strongest country in the world” to stop Israel from building settlements in the West Bank.
 
He noted that Obama had promised to make the Middle East a “priority” and said this was “very encouraging.” “We in the Middle East, in the Arab world feel it very strongly that we need change in the American approach,” Moussa said.
 
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was quoted by Al Jazeera as saying that Obama’s election represented a “major, major change” but said he did not believe that there would be “changes overnight” or “any immediate disengagement” for Iraq.
 
Zebari said he didn’t think there was “much difference” between Obama’s position on troop withdrawal and that of the Iraqi government.
 
But Sheikh Saleh al-Obeidi, cleric of Iraq’s anti-American Moqtada al-Sadr movement, said that his group considered Obama’s victory “as a wish of the American public to withdraw forces from Iraq,” AFP reported.
 
Afghan President Hamid Karzai congratulated Obama and said his victory had taken the world into a “new era.”
 
Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said he hoped Obama would promote “peace and stability” and that the U.S. would continue to be “a source of global peace and new ideas for humanity.”
 
Syrian information minister Mohsen Bilal said Damascus hoped that Obama’s election would help change “U.S. policy from one of wars and embargos to one of diplomacy and dialogue,” Syria’s official news agency SANA reported.
 
Syria is considered a state sponsor of terrorism, and Washington has accused it of allowing insurgents to cross the border into Iraq, backing Hezbollah in Lebanon and hosting the headquarters of Palestinian terror groups in its capital.
 
Former Iranian parliament speaker and current lawmaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel said Americans had been forced to change their policy in order to save themselves from “the quagmire” created by President Bush.
 
Obama’s understanding of that caused him to choose his campaign slogan for change, Haddad-Adel said. “The victory that his slogan brought was an acknowledgement of the American people that Bush’s policies had failed,” he said.
 
Iranian parliamentarian Hamid Reza Haji Babai said Obama’s promise of change represented both “an opportunity and test” for the U.S., the AFP reported.
 
Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ali al-Sadiq said that he hoped that Obama’s slogan of “‘change’ would be reflected in the foreign policy in the United States, especially towards Sudan and oppressed countries, the Palestinians, the Iraqis and the Somalies.”
 
He said they wanted to see some “real change” between the U.S. and Sudan, (which Washington considers a state sponsor of terrorism).
 
President of the transitional Somali government, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said he hoped that Obama would “help end major crises in the world,” particularly in Somalia. “This is a great moment for America and Africa,” he was quoted as saying.