HOUSE OVERSIGHT 028688 the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or on Iran, there are issues he cannot avoid. He may, however, choose to raise them in private talks with Israeli leaders rather than in public. His message is expected to be twofold: Israel should not delay in granting statehood to the Palestinians, however painful that choice may be, and it should be careful not to make an eternal enemy of Iran. Both conflicts have the potential to isolate Israel internationally and threaten its long-term interests, if not its actual existence. In his first term of office, Obama resisted Netanyahu's pressure to wage war on Iran. This was no more than a semi-success, however, since he managed to blunt Netanyahu's belligerence only by imposing on Iran a raft of sanctions of unprecedented severity. They have halved Iran's oil exports, caused its currency to plummet and inflation to gallop, severed its relations with the world's banks and inflicted severe hardship on its population. The key question today is this: What are Obama's intentions? Is he seeking to bring down Iran's Islamic regime, as Israel would like, or is he simply seeking to limit its nuclear ambitions? If 'regime change' is his aim then sanctions will have to be tightened even further and extended indefinitely. But if Obama's aim is to strike a deal with Iran over its nuclear programme then he must give it at least some of what it