Obama, His Chief of Staff, and the Middle East (Part 2)

The item on Barack Obama's selection of Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff has sparked a good deal of discussion. Some readers have noted the welcoming of Emanuel's appointment by Israeli media, in particular the headline in Ma'ariv "Our Man in the White House".

I cannot find an English translation of the Ma'ariv story, but a reader has pointed me to the summary in Al Jazeera magazine. While noting from the outset that Al Jazeera is likely to have a far different perspective from most of the Israeli media, it does offer some interesting quotes. The most striking comes from Emanuel's father in Ma'ariv, 'Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel. Why wouldn't he be? What is he, an Arab? He's not going to clean the floors of the White House.'

I'm still not convinced that Emanuel's appointment is that significant for the Obama Administration's Middle East policy. Few Presidents have taken foreign policy advice from their Chiefs of Staff, and I don't sense that Obama is going to prefer Emanuel to, say, the Secretary of State or National Security Advisor.

It's striking, though, how much play this story is getting in the Middle Eastern press (though, interestingly, the English-language Jerusalem Post was much more muted, merely recycling the quotes from Ma'ariv) and how non-existent the Israel-Palestine angle is in the US and British media's coverage of Emanuel's appointment One has to wonder if the Obama team realise that the issue is so charged that a tangential appointment causes consternation throughout Middle Eastern communities and, consequently, how expectations --- positive and negative --- are already being formed.