The Zelig of the Peace Process Should Go

by on August 13, 2008 7

Ideas travel. A couple months ago I saw Jerry Haber going on about Daniel Kurtzer's book Negotiating Middle East Peace. An amazing book, it calls for presidents to ignore the Israel lobby and have diverse negotiating teams. Well now here is Rami Khouri the Lebanese-Palestinian columnist late of the Wilson Center going on about the book's great lessons. Khouri is a very diplomatic guy. He singles out one name from the book: "Dennis Ross was one of the envoys mentioned by name as not being seen as credible by all sides." Ross of the rightwing thinktank WINEP, Ross who served to undercut his boss Bush on the settlements in '91, who then campaigned for the settlements in '92, led a team that was "Israel's lawyer" at Camp David in '00, and who argued that there is no Israel lobby in '06. He is the living body of the Israel lobby. And lo, he is now back with Obama. I hope Obama's deal with him is strictly tactical.


About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, US Policy in the Middle East, US Politics

{ 7 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Jim Haygood says:
    August 13, 2008 at 6:51 pm

    .

    "Lo, [Dennis Ross] is now back with Obama. I hope Obama's deal with him is strictly tactical."

    Dear, innocent Phil: the campaign is the time for sweeping flights of vacuous idealism. When the "advisors" get appointed as cabinet ministers, things turn grim and squalid in a hurry.

    Don't say I didn't warn ya.

  2. charles Keating says:
    August 14, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Obama just got rid of his American Arab representative.

  3. cherylb says:
    August 14, 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Dennis Ross spoke at Drake University in Des Moines a few months ago. After the lecture I asked him if he was concerned about the fact that his negotiating team had so many Jewish Americans on it, whether that brought a balanced view. (My thought was that doctors tend not to treat there own family members because they can't be objective and most of us prefer diverse boards when we sit on boards, etc.) and his reply was that it did not matter to him what background people brought to the table; it was their ability to analyze and think he valued and that he perhaps paid closer attention to the Arab-American voice on his team.
    This is a paraphrase, but catches the gist of the conversation.
    He rejected the idea that his team needed to be diverse in background.

  4. cherylb says:
    August 14, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    Dennis Ross spoke at Drake University in Des Moines a few months ago. After the lecture I asked him if he was concerned about the fact that his negotiating team had so many Jewish Americans on it, whether that brought a balanced view. (My thought was that doctors tend not to treat there own family members because they can't be objective and most of us prefer diverse boards when we sit on boards, etc.) and his reply was that it did not matter to him what background people brought to the table; it was their ability to analyze and think he valued and that he perhaps paid closer attention to the Arab-American voice on his team.
    This is a paraphrase, but catches the gist of the conversation.
    He rejected the idea that his team needed to be diverse in background.

  5. charles Keating says:
    August 14, 2008 at 1:53 pm

    His team never needs to be diverse–diversity is for white European-origin folks–the rest of the world is entitled.

  6. Paul Easton, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn says:
    August 14, 2008 at 6:07 pm

    .
    interesting that the only way to support obama is to presume that everything he does and says is merely a lie for the purpose of getting elected. it is sort of pitiful how addicted people are to hope. if they would only accept the fact that american democracy, such as it ever was, has long been dead, they could sit back and enjoy the specticle as the system implodes.

  7. charles Keating says:
    August 15, 2008 at 11:48 am

    Not to worry-the latest USA census indicated that the USA nation will be minority as majority by 2042 at the very latest; actually probably before then, given the reluctance of illegals to respond to census bureau activity.

    Then it should be really interesting. Affirmative Action policies, for example, will be fun.

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