DELRAY BEACH, Florida — Dennis Ross, who brought the Israelis and Palestinians together for the first time at Madrid twenty years ago, has resigned as the senior adviser to President Obama on the Middle East and Iran.
“The peace process is what he cares most about,” commented Aaron David Miller. “It has hung up a sign “CLOSED FOR THE SEASON” so why should he stick around, ” Miller said.
Miller, who was part of Ross’s State Department team twenty years ago, pinpointed the facts that that neither side is willing to compromise and that President Obama will do nothing significant to force compromises during the election campaign.
It was not like that 20 years ago. Jim Baker, President George H.W. Bush’s Secretary of State, gave Dennis Ross the job of melting the ice which covered the Middle East. Ross, who was 42 at the time, gathered four young men and they went to work.
The obstacles were many. On the Israeli side stood Prime Minister Shamir who claimed that the Palestinians were not a people. They were Arabs who lived in Palestine as did Jews under the British Mandate. They did not constitute a negotiating partner.
Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was living in exile in Tunis. He was ready to meet with Israelis despite the PLO charter which claimed that Israel had no right to exist. Dennis Ross’s team came up with a cute compromise. Until 1967 the West Bank had been Jordanian. Therefore the Palestinians had the right to be part of the Jordanian delegation to the Madrid conference.
Prime Minister Shamir could not refuse. And so a Palestinian delegation came to Madrid. They didn’t make a move without the consent of Arafat in Tunis. After a while the State Department gave up the fiction that the Palestinians were Jordanians and began dealing with Arafat directly but it took a year or two. Meanwhile Dennis Ross had retired to a Middle East think tank to write books together with David Makovsky.
President Obama’s first move on Middle East peace after his inauguration in 2009 was to appoint Senator George Mitchell as his special envoy to the Middle East. Dennis Ross was recalled to the State Department to serve as his deputy. Mitchell and Ross disagreed on tactics. Mitchell had succeeded in bringing peace to Northern Ireland by persevering and bridging gaps between the two sides with small compromises.
Ross felt that proposing compromises was dangerous. Israel would oppose them and Congress would support Israel. This is what has happened in the past.
The Administration adopted the position that compromises must come from the two sides in face to face talks.
After two years of getting nowhere Mitchell resigned six months ago. Ross has done no better at getting face to face talks. He announced his resignation on November 10 at a luncheon with Jewish leaders in Washington. He is returning to the think tank to write more books.
Meanwhile the PLO’s direct challenge to the State Department by its bid for statehood at the United Nations seems doomed to fail. France has defected so the resolution will not get the majority that would force a veto by the United States.
French President Sarkozy has called Prime Minister Netanyahu a liar in a privat e conversation before an open microphone overheard by French jouirnalists.
Dennis Ross made a couple of trips to Ramallah to try to persuade Mahmoud Abbas to withdraw his bid for statehood and be satisfied with observer status like the Vatican.
Every time Ross goes to the Middle East he confers with his friends in Israel’s security services. He has worked hard in maintaining Israel’s military edge and he cooperates with Israel’s security intelligence in resisting the firebrands who have been campaigning for years for Israel to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities.
While Ross has been cuddling with Israel’s military his relations with Netanyahu have ben rocky. Obama revealed this in the overheard conversation with Sarkozy. No doubt Netanyahu has taken advantage of the “closed for the season” situation in Washington to revert to his father’s principles.
Netanyahu campaigned against a Palestine state and a two -tate solution. Under popular pressure he has reversed his campaign planks and has adopted the State Department’s position. But it has been lip service only.
Ross told the press after he announced his resignation that there was still hope for a two state solution because both peoples wanted it.
But nothing will happen until the “closed for the season” sign comes down.
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Lurie is a freelance writerr based in Delray Beach, Florida. He may be contacted at jzel.lurie@sdjewishworld.com