Dennis Ross
When Dennis Ross, the controversial peace process negotiator and Iran-war booster, left the Obama administration in November for the AIPAC-affiliated Washington Institute for Near East Policy, it seemed like just another example of the revolving, Israel-Lobby door – a well-oiled door by which Israel lobbyists come and go between inside government posts and outside pressure groups. But now it seems that Ross’s departure from the administration was less clear-cut than originally presented — and that, in his case at least, the revolving door looks more like a giant, gaping hole.
As Haaretz reports, Ross may have given up his title – Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the Central Region — but he continues to advise President Obama “on a regular basis” and even maintains his security clearance. “Dennis still comes in and out of the White House every few days,” an American official told Haaretz. Not incidentally, he also “maintains an open channel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.” In fact, just this week, Ross, who is currently in Israel speechifying at various think tanks he helped create, sat down for a hush-hush meeting with Netanyahu.
But here’s the truly disturbing part: the American official quoted by Haartez piece believes that “Ross continues to unofficially relay messages between Jerusalem and Washington, messages that bypass the State Department and even the Middle East Department in the White House National Security Council.” (Emphasis added.)
In other words, by going outside government Ross effectively became extra-government.
Now listen, I have no illusions about the separation of government and corporation or government and special interest. Just look at Newt Gingrich or, heck, the whole Bush administration, which seemed more like a convention of energy-arms-oil-and-banking industry chieftains than a group of government workers. Ditto much of the the Obama administration, sadly. The whole thing is a dirty business. But this latest Ross revelation, in which a government power-broker not merely retains but possibly gains power by leaving government, makes the standard arrangement look almost clean.
Thanks very much Lizzy for highlighting this. Since this topic is so much in the blogospheric news of late, might American citizens reasonably want to consider the issue of Mr. Ross’s possible dual loyalty, since he bypasses the State Dept. and White House Middle East experts (and layers of checks and balances in the process)?
Comme Ci, Comme Ça
Published on Friday, January 27, 2012 by Common Dreams
Postponed Joint Israel-US War Games Back On?
. . .
Now, Austere Challenge 12 is reportedly back on the books and U.S. military officers begin arriving in Israel next week to prepare.
* * *
Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper broke the story Friday in an article in Hebrew. The Israeli media network Arutz Sheva reports:
Postponed Israel-U.S. Drill to be Held in October
The largest-ever anti-missile military exercise with the United States, which Israel postponed a week and a half ago, will be held in October, the Ma’ariv newspaper reported.
The report said that the decision to hold the exercise in October was reached late on Thursday night, after lengthy discussions between defense officials. […]
Ma’ariv also noted that in preparation for the drill, U.S. military officers will arrive in Israel next week. About 3,000 U.S. soldiers are expected to arrive in Israel to take part in the large-scale exercise, the report said, and they will be joined by about 2,000 IDF soldiers.
* * *
And Russia Today (RT) reports:
US and Israel Revive Largest Joint Anti-Missile Drills
[…] Now after a brief delay, America will send thousands of troops and its anti-missile defense systems to Israel, albeit a few months later than planned. With the exercise back in the books, it could mean that an eventual war between the US and Iran is still in the works — and now the world has a timeline to see it through.
. . .
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/01/27-3
The Soviet peoples called it “Deep Government” and it is the rigor here, now and probably for a long time. Dennis Ross is not an Israeli-Firster, he is an Israeli, an agent of a foreign power. If he was Turkish and wanted to kill Kurds, you wouldn’t have any doubts, would you?
Hej!
I would imagine that Obama thinks he can use Dennis Ross to send direct communications to Netanyahu. Very dangerous game. It means that Netanyahu can use Ross (with Ross’s willing agreement) to box Obama into some corner. We all saw how Ross in collaboration with Barak used the Camp David negotiations in 2000 to turn Clinton into a “dumb wooden” puppet and manipulated Clinton into backing Barak with his claim “there is no one to talk with”. These Zionist are extremely devious and it is dangerous to deal with them in secret channels. They have proven themselves superior in playing these games with naive American politicians.
A “senior administration official” told Ha’aretz reporter, Barak Ravid? There’s not much there there. Ha’aretz has a variety of reporters and they’re not all Amira Haas. Sometimes their reports even look as though they are slightly more warmed over versions of press releases from the Foreign Ministry than what one finds in the Jerusalem Post.
Or maybe Ross is trying to convince folks in Jerusalem that he’s still a player and the whitehouse is reluctant to contradict his bragging during an election season (especially when they still have fundraising to do before the election and Ross is very popular with key donors).