In the first, in Washington, the newly anointed democratic candidate for the presidency, Senator Barack Obama who is the son of a Muslim, told the pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC everything that they wanted to hear.

Despite his previous record of being strongly sympathetic to the Palestinians, Obama told the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, Wednesday that as president he would not permit Iran to obtain nuclear arms, and that Jerusalem would remain the undivided capital of Israel.

"Let me be clear," Obama said, "Israel's security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper. But any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel's identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided."

The response of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was immediate. "This statement is totally rejected," he declared.

An Obama presidency, whatever his policies toward Iraq, would appear to continue the two main themes of U.S. President George Bush's policy in the Middle East: unswerving commitment to Israel and implacable opposition to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The second of this week's important meetings took place in the holy city of Mecca, where Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah launched a three-day conference of Muslim scholars to discuss religious dialogue with Christians and Jews. It was also remarkable for its open attempt to reconcile the Sunni and Shiite branches of Islam.

The Saudis invited leading Shiites including Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah of Lebanon and Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, head of Lebanon's Hezbollah. Fadlallah, recently in hospital, sent his son, Sayyed Ali Fadlallah, and while Khamenei did not attend, the former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sat at King Abdullah's right hand.

The Saudi king's initiative provoked a furious response in a 45-minute videotape played over a militant Web site from Abu Yahya al-Libi, an Afghanistan-based al-Qaida spokesman, who said "By God, if you don't resist heroically against this wanton tyrant the day will come when church bells will ring in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula."

Al-Qaida may be right. King Abdullah held a historic meeting with the pope last November, and Vatican Radio has reported that discussions are under way on the construction of the first Christian church in the Arabian Peninsula.

The contrast was cruelly sharp between Obama kowtowing to the pro-Israel lobby in Washington in a way that may well rule out any lingering chance of an Israeli-Palestinian settlement, and the boldly inclusive and ecumenical initiative of the Saudi monarch.