Barack Obama's election was celebrated throughout the Middle East. But enthusiasm could quickly turn to hostility if the new administration does not back up its rhetoric with concrete changes to U.S. Middle East policy on three key issues: Palestine, Iraq, and political reform.

If the Obama administration wants to serve U.S. interests in the region and transform its image from that of an ally of dictators to that of a friend of the masses, then it has to avoid mimicking previous administrations and dispel one of the most common myths surrounding the Arab and Muslim conflict: that the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is too complicated and impossible to resolve.