Love of the Land: Dennis Ross Joins the Obama Cult of Linkage

Dennis Ross Joins the Obama Cult of Linkage

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
06 May '10

Prior to this administration, Dennis Ross was an experienced negotiator who tried valiantly to reach a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians at Camp David. Watching the Palestinians reject the offer of their own state and embark on the intifada impressed upon Ross, or so he wrote repeatedly, the need for Palestinians to develop institutions that would support a peace deal and to lay the groundwork with Arab states and the Palestinian public before future negotiations could succeed. He was also regarded as tough-minded on Iran, ready to impose tough sanctions and do what was necessary to prevent the regime from acquiring nuclear weapons.

He also wrote a book with David Makovsky entitled Myths, illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East, which came out in 2009:

Contrary to the position of the president and other advisers, Ross writes that efforts to advance dialogue with Iran should not be connected to the renewal of talks between Israel and the Palestinians. … In the second chapter, entitled “Linkage: The Mother of All Myths,” Ross writes: “Of all the policy myths that have kept us from making real progress in the Middle East, one stands out for its impact and longevity: the idea that if only the Palestinian conflict were solved, all other Middle East conflicts would melt away. This is the argument of ‘linkage.’”

Well, that’s old hat. He’s thrown in his lot with the Obama crew. Josh Rogin documents Ross’s ingestion of the Obama Kool Aid:

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Love of the Land: Dennis Ross Joins the Obama Cult of Linkage

Love of the Land: Olmert's Offer

Olmert's Offer

CAMERA/Snapshots
01 December 09

Many recall Ehud Barak's peace talks with Yasir Arafat, during which the late Palestinian leader rejected unprecedented offers that would have created a Palestinian state.

But a later peace offer by Ehud Olmert, which was rejected by current Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, seems less embedded in the public consciousness. One possible reason for this lack of awareness is that, relative to the earlier Barak-Arafat negotiations, which were conducted under the media spotlight and detailed in books such as Dennis Ross's The Missing Peace, the specifics of the Olmert-Abbas negotiations have not been very well publicized.

Thanks to journalist Greg Sheridan's interview with the former Israeli prime minister, published Saturday in The Australian, more know about the specifics those peace talks.

Olmert explained:

"On the 16th of September, 2008, I presented him (Abbas) with a comprehensive plan. It was based on the following principles.

One, there would be a territorial solution to the conflict on the basis of the 1967 borders with minor modifications on both sides. Israel will claim part of the West Bank where there have been demographic changes over the last 40 years." [...]

In total, Olmert says, this would have involved Israel claiming about 6.4 per cent of Palestinian territory in the West Bank: "It might be a fraction more, it might be a fraction less, but in total it would be about 6.4 per cent. Israel would claim all the Jewish areas of Jerusalem. All the lands that before 1967 were buffer zones between the two populations would have been split in half. In return there would be a swap of land (to the Palestinians) from Israel as it existed before 1967.

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Love of the Land: Olmert's Offer

Love of the Land: Re: Getting to “No”?

Re: Getting to “No”?

Jennifer Rubin
Contentions/Commentary
10 September 09

This report suggests that the administration doesn’t comprehend that the U.S. and “international community” have been given the brush off by the Iranian regime—or they do and they aren’t yet ready to answer the “What now?” question. Laura Rozen reports that Dennis Ross, NSC Middle East adviser, and William Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, met with a few hundred Jewish activists. Here is the gist:

Essentially, Ross and Burns reiterated that the administration’s objective is to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The strategy has been “engagement without illusions.” But the President will take stock in September and revisit further at year’s end, the conference was told.

They are engaging countries around the globe to help the effort. Burns did say they are starting the planning of the tough sanctions steps now, so that if/when the President decides to take that decision, they are ready to go.

Did you catch the “year end” part? Well, that September deadline is now, it seems, a December 31 deadline. The attendees told Rozen that the bottom line is, aside from the fact that there isn’t really a bottom line, that “it’s time to get the wheels of tough sanctions turning.” But the president is going to take stock. And check back at year’s end. And so it goes. One imagines the Iranians are not exactly quaking in their boots.

Love of the Land: Re: Getting to “No”?