Tehran spring is busting out all over. Haaretz reports that Dennis Ross, Obama's point man on Iran, is being relieved of his duties and moved elsewhere. Haaretz:
Washington insiders speculate that a number of reasons moved the administration to reassign Ross. .. Ross is known to maintain contacts with numerous senior officials in Israel's defense establishment and the Israeli government.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem surmised that another possibility for Ross' ouster is his just-released book, "Myths, Illusions, and Peace – Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East."Ross, who co-wrote the book with David Makovsky, a former journalist who is a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, argued against a linkage between the Palestinian issue and the West's policy against Iran's nuclear ambitions.
Ross and Makovsky also raised the possibility of military action against Iran.
"Tougher policies – either militarily or meaningful containment – will be easier to sell internationally and domestically if we have diplomatically tried to resolve our differences with Iran in a serious and credible fashion," they wrote.
Three weeks ago we picked up the grumbling about Dennis Ross's new book; it contradicts Obama policy on the centrality of the Israel/Palestine issue to regional solution in the Middle East.
My theory about Ross is that he is the living embodiment of the Israel lobby. He has goldplated standing with conservative Jewish organizations (and is a friend of Tom Friedman's) and therefore cannot be sidelined without major political fallout for Obama. Meantime, Obama wants him away from the kitchen. So he keeps him around, in ever-more marginalized positions, so Ross won't start complaining publicly too much and create problems on Obama's right flank.
AIPAC would just love to form an anti-Obama, anti-J Street bloc with Dennis Ross, Gary Ackerman, and Robert Wexler–the Jewish center. But Obama and J Street are too shrewd. And so long as Dennis Ross is on board, no one in the Israel lobby can say that Obama is not being fair toward the Israelis. Some day Ross will be gone. But it will take years.
