Mideast weighs the Clinton prospect

But analysts on both sides say it's unclear how much responsibility or leeway Obama would give Clinton to conduct Middle East policy. They note that other officials, including Vice President-elect Joe Biden, who has extensive foreign policy experience, and Gen. James L. Jones Jr., whom Obama is expected to name today as his choice for national security advisor, might also weigh heavily in decisions about the region after the administration takes office in January.

Because Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq pose more immediate problems, it is also uncertain how swiftly the administration will pursue an Israeli-Palestinian accord, a goal often portrayed as the key to peace in a region where that conflict is used as justification for militancy. The talks are bogged down in differences over borders, Palestinian refugees and rival claims to Jerusalem.

Criticism of Obama

Nonetheless, Clinton's long record of public pronouncements on the Middle East is being studied across the region for clues about America's diplomatic direction here.

As first lady and as New York's junior senator, she has taken positions, some at odds with Obama's, that appeal to Israelis and Jewish voters at home. She was an early advocate of the barrier separating Israel from the West Bank (Obama has yet to voice support for it) and of Jerusalem as the "eternal and indivisible capital of Israel."

Like Obama, she has said the United States should not negotiate with Hamas, the Iranian-backed militant group that runs the Gaza Strip. During the primary campaign she criticized Obama's willingness to negotiate with Iran and declared that the United States could "obliterate" Iran if it launched a nuclear attack on Israel.

"Her friendship and support of the Jewish people and Israel is second to none," said Danny Ayalon, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States.

The Arab world sees two Hillary Clintons: one, the first lady who famously got ahead of U.S. policy a decade ago by advocating Palestinian statehood and remains at least verbally wedded to the goal of a U.S.-brokered peace deal; the other, a politician with lingering presidential ambitions and a BlackBerry that holds too many pro-Israeli connections.

"My impression is that before agreeing to take the job, she fought quite hard for a real role in formulating American policy," said Mouin Rabbani, an independent analyst based in Amman, Jordan. "But she'll be acting with at least one eye on her own political future. It's not all that difficult to imagine her on issues like Iran and Israel staking out positions that could be used for a future election campaign."