HOUSE OVERSIGHT 029783 a surprisingly strong showing by a new centrist party is likely to put more pressure on him to pursue talks. "It was a mistake for Obama not to go in the first term at a time when it could have affected Israeli public opinion of him, and now, it has hardened against him to a point that I don't believe it can," said Elliott Abrams, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations who served as a senior Middle East adviser to Bush. Obama's visit will coincide with growing concern in the region that the two-state solution favored by him is in peril, as Israeli settlement construction continues and as the Islamist Hamas gains clout within the once-secular Palestinian nationalist movement. Hamas emerged stronger politically from the recent clash with Israel and continues to reject the Jewish state's right to exist. Hamas and its secular rival Fatah are due to meet Saturday as part of a reconciliation process. If an agreement is reached and Hamas joins the Palestinian Authority, Obama will be faced with an awkward decision on whether to meet with a government that includes members of a U.S.- designated terrorist movement. As he begins again in the region, Obama will be advised by new Secretary of State John F. Kerry. He has also named former