Ynet is notioning 3 names for the job of Obama's Middle East envoy: Colin Powell, Dan Kurtzer, and Dennis Ross. I'm for Powell, because I think he gets it and despises the JINSA crowd. Ynet says of Ross and Kurtzer:
Department during the Clinton administration and are highly proficient
in the Israeli-Arab conflict.
What does proficient mean in the context of Palestinian statelessness forever? Ross campaigned on behalf of the settlements in the '92 presidential race, saying it was his boss George Bush's "achievement" that the settlement program hadn't stopped, then jumped over to work for Clinton. If you represent the pro-Israel Jewish community, you have 9 political lives. Look at Joe Lieberman. Do you ever have to pay for a criminal policy? Especially now that it's created apartheid?
As for Kurtzer, I've always liked him, but isn't it disqualifying if his brother is a settler who believes in Greater Israel? You'd never make it on a jury if you had family that was connected. The Jerusalem Post reported in 2006:
[Kurtzer] and his wife, Melissa, arrived from Dallas along
with four of their five children. They plan to rent a
home in [the settlement] Ma'aleh Adumim for a year and will "be taking it from
there," Benjamin said.
The fact that Ma'aleh Adumim is over the Green Line
is not a
problem for Benjamin and his family. "For us, there
are no green
lines or red lines, it's all part of Israel,"
he said.
The policies his brother represented as ambassador played
no
role in their choice of where to live. "[Daniel]
was coming from
the diplomatic viewpoint and we were coming from the
Zionist viewpoint," Benjamin said.
Thanks to Ira Glunts.
