Jerusalem Must Not Be Divided, Says Dennis Ross

by Philip Weiss on November 2, 2008 · 3 comments

Any doubt why Obama chose Dennis Ross as a foreign policy adviser? He wants the lobby in his pocket. The Jerusalem Post interviewed Ross about the Middle East and he said Iraq was a great success story and that Jerusalem must not be divided. That's the way I read this answer below. Proving once again that Israelis and American Jews do not want to hear this idea. And that Obama's statement at AIPAC and flipflop the next day was merely the purposeful Obambiguity at which he excels. We don't know what he thinks.

Ross goes in for the usual dodge about subject to "final negotiations." Negotiations that have never taken place in 60 years. Will Obama end up pushing for an imposed solution, with the semi-enlightened Jewish community behind him? That's the hopeful read. And thus the purpose of this election: to rid the country of the neocons, making the new right the neolib hawks.

Here's Ross on Jerusalem:

Given how Obama said at the AIPAC conference in June that Jerusalem shouldn't be divided and then said the next day that he wasn't ruling out shared sovereignty with the Palestinians, how can voters know that he'll really stand with Israel?

I am convinced that he will stand by Israel. I am. If I wasn't convinced of that, I wouldn't be standing here. Do I think that at the end of the day he will do whatever's necessary if Israel's threatened? I do.

You raised the issue of Jerusalem. That was at the AIPAC speech. And what he said, he said the following: "Jerusalem is Israel's capital." He said the city should never be divided again. And it's true that in that speech he didn't make the third point, which is, the final status of the city will be resolved by negotiations. Before the speech he said that, after the speech he said that. The American position has been those three points.

The fact of the matter is, Jerusalem is Israel's capital. That's a fact. It's also a fact that the city should not be divided again. That's also a fact. The position of the United States since Camp David, the position, by the way, adopted in the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, signed by [prime minister] Menachem Begin, was that the final status of Jerusalem would be resolved by negotiations. Those are the three points. That's what his position is.

Related posts:

  1. Divided Jerusalem–’48-67–Was a Disaster
  2. Have Saddle, Will Travel: Why Dennis Ross Keeps His Job While Presidents Come and Go
  3. Dennis Ross could be ‘Elliott Abrams of Obama administration’
  4. Obama Man Dennis Ross Sure Sounds Like Israel’s Lawyer Re Nuclear Iran
  5. How can Dennis Ross be effective after chairing Israeli institute that called for ‘bringing Ahmadinejad to justice’?

{ 3 comments }

1 Jacqueline_Hyde November 2, 2008 at 10:58 am

Proof positive that Israel is not the inclusive dis-interested society they claim to be but wracked with prejudice. The late pope had the right idea: make Jerusalem an open, international city. Why should the Israelis care, they'll still have their Wehrmacht and Tel Aviv. But no, the Jews must control the holiness.

2 anon November 2, 2008 at 11:44 am

What's defective with American Christians that they would support
a Holy City spawning three faiths to be ruled by one of them?

3 anon November 3, 2008 at 12:08 pm

RE: "It's also a fact that the city should not be divided again. That's also a fact. "

Is this some new meaning of the word "fact?"
By merely repeating a what-oughta-be is a fact, we have a fact?

A fact is a cork said George Grosz.

He was a Weimar expressionist painter.

A fact is like a turd. There it is.
A prospective fact is that if you eat, you will eventually have a turd if you are healthy.

A toothache is another fact.

Dennis Ross 's opinion on Jerusalem is not more nor less than the Pope's opinion.

Opinion, not fact.

But in the USA there is no longer any difference, the better for informed citizens in a democracy to think they have minds.

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