Unreformed peace processor, Dennis Ross handles questions from Deborah Solomon in Sunday's New York Times including
Why do you think President Bush decided to eliminate the position of Mideast peace negotiator, after you had served his father and President Clinton and helped broker so many agreements?
The Bush administration, in the first term, made a basic decision to disengage.They took the words "peace process" out of the lexicon. They literally would not use the words "peace process" for the first few months. In the second term, Condoleezza Rice has been more involved.
A little context is in order to realize how perverse this answer is. At the time the Bush administration came to power in 2001 the so-called Aqsa intifadah had been going on for about 4 months. Despite the fact that half a year earlier Yasser Arafat had turned down Ehud Barak at Camp David; and despite the fact that Ehud Barak was a lame duck, only in power because elections had not yet been held, the Americans, shepherding talks between Israel and the Palestinians, continued trying to find an agreement.
(h/t Mystery Achievement ) As David Meir-Levi writes in Front Page Magazine "Who is really oppressing the Palestinians?"
11.) The Taba Talks, 1-2/2001: Israeli and PA representatives were, by anecdotal ex-post-facto accounts, on the verge of agreement about many issues. Baraq was trying to negotiate in good faith, even though the Intifada was raging, and there were an average of 10-20 terrorist attacks per day.
From his answer to the New York Times magazine you'd have thought that the peace process was going swimmingly and then the administration of George W. Bush just "disengaged" from the whole thing. Rather the truth was that an America sponsored peace process had completely foundered. Certainly stepping back made sense.
The bottom line is that American participation is irrelevant. Unless there's a change in the Palestinian view of Israel there will never be peace. To pretend otherwise is intellectually dishonest. After eight years of active involvement in peace processing it's a shame that Ross hadn't learned that at all.
This isn't to say that there was nothing of value in the interview, but the blindness that Ross displays toward the importance of American involvement in the peace process is nothing short of astounding.
Technorati Tags: israel, peace process, Dennis Ross.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
An unreformed peace processor
Dennis Ross never learned.
Unreformed peace processor, Dennis Ross handles questions from Deborah Solomon in Sunday's New York Times including
A little context is in order to realize how perverse this answer is. At the time the Bush administration came to power in 2001 the so-called Aqsa intifadah had been going on for about 4 months. Despite the fact that half a year earlier Yasser Arafat had turned down Ehud Barak at Camp David; and despite the fact that Ehud Barak was a lame duck, only in power because elections had not yet been held, the Americans, shepherding talks between Israel and the Palestinians, continued trying to find an agreement.
(h/t Mystery Achievement ) As David Meir-Levi writes in Front Page Magazine "Who is really oppressing the Palestinians?"
From his answer to the New York Times magazine you'd have thought that the peace process was going swimmingly and then the administration of George W. Bush just "disengaged" from the whole thing. Rather the truth was that an America sponsored peace process had completely foundered. Certainly stepping back made sense.
The bottom line is that American participation is irrelevant. Unless there's a change in the Palestinian view of Israel there will never be peace. To pretend otherwise is intellectually dishonest. After eight years of active involvement in peace processing it's a shame that Ross hadn't learned that at all.
This isn't to say that there was nothing of value in the interview, but the blindness that Ross displays toward the importance of American involvement in the peace process is nothing short of astounding.
Technorati Tags: israel, peace process, Dennis Ross.
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.
Posted by David Gerstman at February 7, 2006 04:58 AM