US President Barack Obama' s second-term Middle East diplomacy was started by his visit to Israel, Palestine and Jordan recently. US Secretary of State John Kerry also paid a visit to several Middle Eastern countries including Turkey, Egypt and Saudi Arabia in early March. Given the changing situation in the Middle East and the divergence of views between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, these visits to the Middle East are of special significance.

Obama and Kerry's visits expressed US security concerns toward Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Obama's visit to Turkey is a kind of practical measure to push the bad relationship between Turkey and Israel back to a normal path. His efforts on preventing Jordan from being influenced by the Arab Spring's turbulence are also intended to help Israel, which has good relations with the Jordanian monarchy.

Obama's historical visit is also a political gesture to demonstrate US concern and confidence on restarting Israel-Palestine peace process and to make sure the establishment of Palestinian statehood can continue on a road which is acceptable to the US and Israel.

Currently, the main challenges Israel faces are the Iranian nuclear problem and surrounding regional turbulence. With no breakthroughs on the horizon for the Iranian nuclear issue, the stability of its neighbors has become Israel's most important security demand.

Changes in the Middle East have brought positive influence as well as negative impacts to Israel's geopolitical environment.

Syria which is hostile to Israel in turbulence meets Israel's interests. But the post-Mubarak Egypt, which has a close relationship with Iran and Hamas, renders the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty unstable. The Gaza flotilla raid in 2010 also strained the relationship between Israel and Turkey. Not to mention that Palestine is always a thorn stuck in Israel's throat.

Therefore, security is the eternal topic during the meetings between officials from the US and Israel. In his first term, Obama tried to maintain "comprehensive peace" around Israel. He tried to persuade Israel to make concessions on the issue of settlements and rebuild US influence in Arab world, so as to establish a tripartite coalition by the US, Israel and Arabian countries. However, the precondition of this was Israel's willingness to make concessions. Netanyahu refused to do so, bringing an end to the prospects of peace.

Several years have past and things have changed with the passage of time. Obama and Netanyahu were sitting down once again to discuss Israel's security issues after both winning reelection. Obama made a new prescription this time, that Israel should practice good-neighbor diplomacy.

Compared with the difficult project of comprehensive peace, good-neighbor diplomacy seems more acceptable to Israel. Turkey, Jordan, Palestine and Egypt are four key points in this policy. 

Development of the good-neighbor diplomacy will help Israel to improve its neighborhood environment as well as help the US itself. Maintaining stability is the primary purpose of the US Middle Eastern policies and regional alliances are still important foundations for the US to resolve regional problems.

Given the current changing situation in the Middle East, resolving these problems will not only maintain the security of Israel and the whole region, but also prevent the regional situation from worsening.

What's more, US mediation will help the US to restore its credibility in this region and enhance the dominant US role. Successful mediation can show US allies, especially Israel, that the US still has the ability to effectively control the Middle East, which will avoid unilateral actions by Israel in its conflict with its neighboring countries. After all, the US has to clear up the mess left by Israel.

Obama's visit has achieved some success. Netanyahu's apology to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the normalization of Israel-Turkish relations are two highlights. However, the deep contradictions between Palestine and Israel and Iran nuclear problem are unlikely to be resolved in the short term. The future is still highly uncertain.



The author is an associate professor of the Institute of International Relations at Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn