US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama’s visit to the Kingdom for talks with His Majesty King Abdullah was an occasion to get acquainted with Jordanian views, not only on the Palestinian conflict, but also other regional concerns.

Given the fact that the Palestinian question is the core Middle Eastern issue, getting to know the basics about it would go a long way in expanding Obama’s knowledge and horizon on the Palestinian crisis and its link to other regional situations.

The Democratic presidential candidate knows a lot about our region of the world, but there is much more that he needs to familiarise himself with before he can exercise balanced and well-informed judgements on them.

Obama got carried away in associating himself with the perspectives of Israel when he addressed the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in the wake of his dramatic win over Senator Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries more than a month ago.

By siding with Israel on the future of Jerusalem and describing it as Israel’s eternal and undivided capital, Obama appeared to have ignored basic UN Security Council resolutions that described the Israeli decision to annex the holy city and make it its capital as null and void.

Obama has since softened his pro-Israel stand on Jerusalem, but has yet to go as far as abandoning it altogether.

His position that Israel may withdraw from the Arab occupied territories to only defensible lines means only one thing: he is repudiating once again the UN position on the nonacceptability of the acquisition of territories by force.

Not less important is Obama’s call to keep Israel a strictly Jewish state, thus repudiating the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes in accordance with UN Resolution 194 and other international norms.

The fact that Obama has visited the region and Jordan in particular means that he wants to learn a lot more about regional conflicts.

If he is elected as the next president of the US, Obama will have to address the Palestinian question in a more determined manner, with a view to ending the plight of the Palestinian people by offering them a real opportunity to have their own independent state on Palestinian soil.

Otherwise the US would be abandoning its role as peacemaker in the Middle East.