Dear Mr President-Elect

First, congratulations are in order. It was a long and gruelling campaign. The climb was steep, you said yesterday; the journey was extraordinarily hard. It took more than two centuries. But you are finally there.

It is time for you now to rest and reflect on your amazing victory. The American people spoke and decided that you were the best person for the job.

And as you also said, they voted for "change". But we have heard this word so many times during the past few months that it has almost lost its meaning.

But the American people mean it. So does the rest of the world that supported you even before your compatriots cast their ballots. One of those who voted for you in New York, 54-year- old salesman Michael Smith sums it up: "The last eight years has been a horror story." He is talking about the eight years (they seem so much longer!) of the reign of George W. Bush in the White House. And if an American says that, imagine what an Iraqi widow or a grieving Afghan would tell you.

Mr President-Elect

In your victory speech you assured the American people that "there is new energy to harness; new jobs to be created; new schools to build and threats to meet; and alliances to repair."

The majority of Americans mostly voted for you for domestic reasons. The financial crisis helped, which many say is the result of the failed fiscal policies of the arrogant warmonger who will soon be your predecessor. But the America they knew up to that bloody day in September 2001 has changed dramatically. Under Bush's anti-terror laws, it has become a terrified and divided nation. Civil rights have increasingly come under attack.

Meanwhile, social services, as well as education and health, took frequent beatings as budgets shrank. Money, instead, went to finance endless wars around the world waged by the current president.

Mr President-Elect

The United States is a great nation built on the ideals of liberty and democracy, but this image has been overwhelmed by acts of aggression and destruction. You can see that destruction in the faces and on the bodies of Bush's victims in Iraq - and you will have seen the horror in those pictures of Abu Ghraib.

Please take time and ask Iraqis what five years of "liberation" have meant to them. Or in Afghanistan, please count the casualties of the countless airstrikes on innocent gatherings and weddings.

Or in Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds of people are inhumanely incarcerated and tortured: Seize the moment and close that hole of shame.

Or in Eastern Europe, where thousands of innocent people have been "renditioned" and tortured by US agents: Stop their agony and the flagrant injustice; stop the outrage of "waterboarding" and the pretence that it is acceptable treatment for anyone to experience. Try it yourself!

Or in Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and Palestine: Seize the moment and stand up for justice for all.

Mr President-Elect

You promised "change". It certainly is early to judge you. The White House is still 76 days away. But you, as the first African-American president, will be watched very closely and judged every step of the way. Yesterday you reaffirmed the promise. You said: "The true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope."

The entire world hopes you keep your promise. We are simply tired of George W. Bush. The majority of people around the planet cheered for you yesterday morning and prayed you would undo the damage he has done to the world, allies and foes, in his two terms. And no place has suffered under Bush more so than the Middle East.

Mr President-Elect

Soon you will hear words like the roadmap, peace process, two-state solution. And you will need to understand what they represent. They refer to some of the attempts by several of your predecessors to help resolve the enduring Arab-Israeli conflict. No luck so far. On the night of your victory, six Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip.

But we are afraid that more innocent lives will be wasted. In your campaign platform, you announced your commitment to "ensure that Israel retains a qualitative edge" over its Arab neighbours. By doing this you offered a recipe of more trouble to come.

This is a promise we pray you will not keep. For years the United States has done what you promise to keep doing, and look at where we are today. The prospect of peace has never been so elusive.

Mr President-Elect

The Middle East is too important to ignore. There will be no stability or peace, and no victory over extremism, without a lasting and just peace in the Middle East. Every president has sought to bring peace to Palestine and Israel, and they have all failed.

By electing you, the American people have made history. In the Middle East, you will have the chance to bring peace and rewrite history.