Dennis Ross is a diplomat pretty high in the State Department under Hillary Clinton. He was lately appointed a special adviser on the Persian Gulf/Iran. Till lately, Ross was chairman of the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, an Israeli thinktank. He seems to have stepped down; but is still on their board.
Note that, according to an official Israeli government statement, JPPPI officials lately briefed the Israeli prime minister and cabinet on the thinktank's report on the state of the Jewish people in 2008, made while Ross was chairman:
noted that at the beginning of 2009, the State of Israel and the Jewish
people are facing a range of complex and severe challenges and threats,
and called attention to the change of administration in the US,
geopolitical uncertainty, a continuing erosion in the US's global
position and the slide toward a multi-polar world, the strengthening of
Iran, Israel as a pretext for the dissemination of a new anti-Semitism,
the risk to Israel's image as a refuge for the Jewish people…
How do we reconcile Dennis Ross's high government position with his bifurcated loyalties? The only way to explain it is by talking about the Israel lobby and the importance of Jewish money in the Democratic Party political process. Note that Lester Crown, patriarch of a billionaire family in Chicago and a big Obama supporter, is affiliated with JPPPI. (Thanks to Ira Glunts)
