"Obama is more patient than McCain," Ayalon told Israel Radio on Wednesday morning. "He will give more chance for diplomatic solutions and he has a better chance to seal off Iran with sanctions and maybe this will be better for everyone."
The following are snapshots from other parts of the world over the Obama victory.
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In Iraq, some U.S. soldiers stayed up all night to await the announcement of their new commander in chief and when Barack Obama gave his acceptance speech he spoke to them.
"Even as we stand here tonight, we know there are brave Americans waking up in the deserts of Iraq and the mountains of Afghanistan to risk their lives for us," Obama said.
About 15 miles north of Baghdad at Camp Taji, Kevin Brooks, a 38-year-old staff sergeant from South Carolina, saw that Obama was the president elect just after 7 a.m.
"I'm really proud to be an American today," Brooks said. "Our country has come such a long way. It's incredible."
Brooks, a black, woke up at 3 a.m. to watch the news at a recreation hall on the base in Taji.
"I just wish my own grandmother was here to see this," he said.
For some this meant change and a possible end in sight.
"I knew he'd win, but I'm still shocked," said Staff Sgt. Errol Watson, 34, of Georgetown, Del. "It's pretty huge, especially for people here ... Obviously an Obama win means we could be going home sooner, and I think everybody here wants a (withdrawal) timeline."
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In Baghdad, shop owners in the busy marketplace of Bab al-Sharji tuned their televisions to the Arabic Satellite News stations monopolized by election coverage. The market is encased by towering concrete walls to protect shoppers from car bombs.
In one shop that specialized in the whole sale of two-way radios, Jassim al-Saadi read the newspaper at 8:30 a.m. and gazed at the television where newscasters analyzed Obama's win.
"We will be liberated as Iraqis, we will get rid of this concrete, we will be capable of going to our jobs at normal times and not in darkness," al-Saadi said. "I believe Obama is a man of politics not a man that desires wars, not like McCain or George Bush, the father and son."
As he spoke, Malek Fadel a young Iraqi soldier walked into the shop to buy batteries.
"Our future is connected to America not by our will and despite this connection this vote will not affect us," Fadel said. "No one hears us or cares for us as Iraqis."
As another customer walked in an employee called out to him.
"Congratulations the black man wins!" he said.
"He deserves it. He is one of our uncles," Sadiq al-Dulaimy said, joking that next time a member of his tribe, the Dulaim could run for president.
Another patron joined in and his words dripped with sarcasm.
"Yes he's our president," said Mohammed Khalaf a bodyguard for a senior Iraqi official. "He's the man who can make a decision in Iraq. He's the man with the first and last word in this country."
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In western Kenya, the birthplace of Obama's father, small crowds gathered at fairgrounds and in bars to watch the election returns trickle in. In Kisumu, the main town in the region, a few dozen young men watching on a small screen at the fairgrounds erupted in cheers and hoots shortly after 7 a.m. local time, when television networks called the election for Obama.
Kenyans wearing Obama pins, Obama stickers and Obama T-shirts expressed joy not only that a man they see as one of their own would occupy the White House, but also at the idea that American voters could see beyond a person's skin color.
"Kenyans have learned a lot about America," Lamek Onyango, a jobless 25-year-old. "It depends on the person, on how he is and the knowledge that somebody has, not if he is black or white."
Sensing a victory even before the polls had closed, The Standard, a national Kenyan daily, ran a one-word front-page headline: "Obama."
In Nyangoma-Kogelo, the bucolic village where Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah, still lives, dozens of neighbors danced in celebration under a searing morning sun. The extended Obama clan made plans for an afternoon feast to include chapati, a fried flatbread that Sarah Obama said was the president-elect's favorite dish.
Obama's victory felt like redemption in western Kenya, where many in the predominant Luo tribe _ the ethnic group to which Obama's late father belonged _ is still smarting from Kenya's disputed presidential election last December. A loss by the Luo candidate, Raila Odinga, unleashed weeks of violence that killed more than 1,000 people and reignited tensions between Kenya's many diverse ethnicities.
"In this country politics is too much about ethnicity. America is showing that leadership has no color," said Samuel Otieno, an unemployed 23-year-old wearing an Obama pin. "Kenya can learn a lot."
Most Kenyans have come to grips with the fact that Obama isn't going to personally fix all of their country's problems. But some hoped that Democratic policies could enhance economic development in Africa.
"What is important to me is that an Obama victory will bring down the racial divide that the world has been suffering," said Mary Opere, 22, a tour company employee who was watching the returns early Wednesday morning at a bar in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. "I think Obama will also give us trade and not aid."
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A cheer went up among Obama supporters at a gathering of Americans and Brazilians in Rio de Janeiro every time CNN called another state for the Democratic candidate.
"I adore the United States, it's a spectacular country," said Italo Mazzoni, president of the Rio-based Brazilian-United States Institute. "But the United States' reputation has been sullied because of President Bush. Obama is capable of improving that image. He is young and has modern ideas. He can transmit a more positive image of the United States."
In recent days, ordinary Brazilians, unprompted, had been expressing their hopes in Obama.
"I think it will be good for the United States to have a black man as president," said Jorge Silva, who sells fruit from a cart in Rio. "The United States needs change, and Obama represents that."
Even Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been expressing hope in Obama.
