Barack Obama will take oaths as president of the USA on Tuesday not only with the sincere hopes and good wishes of the great majority of Americans behind him but also the hopes and wishes and blessings of the poor of the world spread across the globe.

The poor of the Third World see a black American president for the first time. Rightly or wrongly they have considered white American presidents as not being much sympathetic towards their cause.

Obama has made no such promises but with his very demeanour, his liberalism, his elegant and polished oratory, and sincerity has been able to touch the heart strings of the poor of the world. Whether Obama can deliver even a fraction of such expectations given the conditions under which he takes oaths as president is indeed doubtful.

Bankrupt White House

No doubt he walks into the White House at a time when the nation is facing the gravest financial crisis in recent history. Mighty banks and financial institutions have collapsed; the greatest of the American automobile industry had to be saved from bankruptcy by a government handout. Tens of thousands of middle class and poor Americans are being forced out of their homes being unable to pay their mortgages.

On Thursday the Associated Press ran a story of a house painter out of job for eight months and homeless who had to brave the elements for eight months through heat waves, wind, storms, rain and now snow and ice at temperatures well below freezing point. Reports speak of thousands of such Americans who have lost their jobs. It is evident that unless Obama is able to get back America on its feet soon, his charismatic image is bound to take a severe beating.

Congress cooperation

 The $750 billion package meant to rescue banks and financial institutions in the past two months does not seem to have worked. It is now being alleged that the money has not gone into the correct places and the new President hopes to kick-start his term of office with a whopping $ 825 billion package.

The American system is such that the power of the executive branch under the president is matched by the legislature - the Congress. Obama having been a senator knows the senate well enough to see him through without it blocking bills which he would need to be passed very urgently.

He has a domestic programme which calls for huge financial resources. Rescuing the economy from its 'free fall,' extending healthcare to all as pledged in his election campaign, new ways of energy production and expansion of the infrastructure such as building of roads and bridges are his immediate plans for  which he will need the cooperation of Congress.

 Foreign policy will be one plank on which he could rise or fall but without economic recovery Obama's prospects will indeed be very bleak according to most American commentators.

As he takes office he is being tested by the Israelis on the pledges made so far. Israel has launched one of the most brutal attacks on the Gaza strip killing a near 1000 Palestinians within two weeks and its aerial and ground attacks are not abating.

The intransigent Palestinian terror group Hamas is continuing with their weak and ineffectual rocket attacks into Israel regardless of the devastation they are bringing on their own people.

 'The hundred years war' as The Economist last week described it is on Obama's and Foreign Secretary Hillary Clinton's desks even before they sit down to work. Could they be able to resolve this problem which has raged for so long  with fresh ideas or would they continue to flog the two nation proposal - an independent state of Israel and an independent state of Palestine?

Western principle

In the post World War II era Western powers and the UN under their tutelage often worked on the principle that if two nations staked claims on a common territory and both had historical claims to that land, the solution is to attempt dividing it. That strategy attempted for over 50 years has failed to resolve the Israel Palestinian conflict.

Indeed a similar mantra was proposed - and is still being advocated - by Western powers to bring about a resolution to the Sri Lankan conflict. People with long historical memories, claims and emotional ties, it is evident cannot be fobbed off by simple partitioning of land and this has proved to be so in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute.

How Obama will try to resolve the mayhem going on in Gaza is not known, but as American president he has the clout to bring about a halt to the on going human slaughter. His silence on the basis that he was not the US president as yet and could not express an opinion has already  cost much of the popularity he had gained in the Arab world. Barack Obama, the pragmatist knows well the power of the American Jewish lobby and he cannot act emotionally.

Common Middle East strategy

Political analysts have said that he would have to evolve a common strategy for the Middle East ranging from Palestine and Israel encompassing all Arab countries to Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan if any success is to be achieved. This would be based on strong, effective diplomacy. It would take at least two years to get going. If he succeeds in pulling out troops from Iran by this year that would be some measure of immediate success.