When he becomes US president in two weeks, Barack Obama will have little breathing room to deal with ''the horrible mess'' left by his predecessor George W.Bush over Israel's war in Gaza, analysts say.
After refusing to comment on the 12-day war on the constitutional premise that ''there is only one president at a time'', Mr Obama promised yesterday to engage in Middle East diplomacy ''immediately'' upon taking office on January 20.
His remarks signalled how fast he is being pulled into the conflict that analysts say will at the very least deny him the manoeuvering room he may have sought to appoint key officials and develop a new strategy.
The conflict may have even worse consequences for a new president who wants to make a clean break with the Bush era, according to a former adviser to both Republican and Democratic secretaries of state, Aaron David Miller. ''Remember, he was supposed to change the mood, tone, music with respect to America in the Arab and Muslim world,'' Mr Miller, now a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, said.
''Well, guess what? This guy is coming into office against a backdrop of incredible bitterness and anger against Israel and, by implication, the United States.
''That's a big problem because it strips him of an opportunity to create his own character, his own stamp,'' he said. ''He inherits the Bush Administration policies whether he likes it or not.
''This is Obama's or [rather] Hillary's baby,'' he said, referring to Mr Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state.
Mr Miller expected Hamas to emerge stronger politically from the conflict while it would be more difficult to deal with Israel.
''The United States are going to be perceived to be weak ... We can't or won't deal with Hamas, we can't or won't restrain the Israelis and we don't have the capacity to put together a deal,'' he said.
''That's horrible for an incoming president, that we're weak. Forget that we're biased. Everybody knows we're biased.
''The Obama administration has a big mess on their hands no matter what happens a big mess.''
An analyst with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Professor Nathan Brown, regretted that Mr Bush was leaving ''a horrible mess'' and said the conflict in Gaza forced Mr Obama to act more quickly than he would have liked.
''What I think [the Obama team] may have hoped for would have been several months' breathing room ... to get appointments in place, figure out a strategy,'' Professor Brown said.
He recalled that Mr Obama had mentioned a speech he would give in a ''major Muslim capital'', and that would have started him on a very different footing. AFP
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