U.S. President-elect Barack Obama's pledge to pull American troops out of Iraq is welcomed by Arab nations and the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA is anxiously awaiting the appointment of a special Middle East envoy who President-elect Obama has said he will appoint.
Candidates include former Democratic President Bill Clinton, who arranged the famous handshake between Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin during the Oslo Accord negotiations. Other possibilities are his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton, Oslo Accords architect Dennis Ross, former American envoy to Israel Dan Kurtzer and Governor Bill Richardson.
For an analysis of Obama's rough roadmap for Israel click here.