Dennis Ross

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Ross speaking at Emory University.

Dennis B. Ross (born November 26, 1948) is an American diplomat and author. He has served as the Director of Policy Planning in the State Department under President George H. W. Bush, the special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton, and is currently a special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia (which includes Iran) to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.[1]

Biography

Ross was born in San Francisco and grew up in Marin County. His Jewish mother and Catholic stepfather raised him in a non-religious atmosphere.[2] Ross graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1970 and did graduate work there, writing his doctoral dissertation on Soviet decision-making.[3] He later became religiously Jewish after the Six Day War.[2] In 2002 he co-founded the Kol Shalom synagogue in Rockville, Maryland.[2]

During President Jimmy Carter's administration, Ross worked under Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz in the Pentagon. There, he co-authored a study recommending greater U.S. intervention in "the Persian Gulf Region because of our need for Persian Gulf oil and because events in the Persian Gulf affect the Arab-Israeli conflict."[4] During the Reagan administration, Ross served as director of Near East and South Asian affairs in the National Security Council and Deputy Director of the Pentagon's Office of Net Assessment (1982-84).[3]

Ross returned briefly to academia in the 1980s, serving as executive director of the Berkeley-Stanford program on Soviet International Behavior from 1984-1986.[3] In the mid-1980s Ross co-founded with Martin Indyk the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)-sponsored Washington Institute for Near East Policy ("WINEP").[5] His first WINEP paper called for appointment of a "non-Arabist Special Middle East envoy" who would "not feel guilty about our relationship with Israel."[6]

In the President George H. W. Bush administration he was director of the United States State Department's Policy Planning Staff, working on U.S. policy toward the former Soviet Union, the reunification of Germany and its integration into NATO, arms control, and the 1991 Gulf War.[3] He also worked with Secretary of State James Baker on convincing Arab and Israeli leaders to attend the 1991 Middle East peace conference in Madrid, Spain.[2]

Middle East Envoy

Ross (right) with Ehud Barak in 1999.

In the summer of 1993 President Bill Clinton named Ross Middle East envoy. He helped the Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria.[3]

Ross was criticized by people on both sides of the conflict. Occasional references to his Jewish ancestry were brought up within the Arab world (although Ross maintains this was not a problem with other heads of state during negotiations), and some conservative Israelis branded him "self-hating" — each questioning his ability to be unbiased.[7][8] According to Aaron David Miller, a member of the Ross-led US negotiating team in 1999-2000, under Ross they frequently acted as "Israel's lawyer", and their policy of "no surprises" (meaning all US proposals were first reviewed by Israel), led to a lack of negotiating flexibility and independence.[9] Ross writes in The Missing Peace that "Aaron was always arguing for a just and fair proposal... that the Palestinians were entitled to 100 percent of the territory. Swaps should thus be equal... on the basis that every other Arab negotiating partner had gotten 100 percent. Why should the Palestinians be different? I disagreed."[10]

In their 2006 paper The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, John Mearsheimer, political science professor at the University of Chicago, and Stephen Walt, academic dean of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, named Ross as a member of the "Israeli lobby" in the United States.[11] Ross in turn criticized the academics behind the paper.[11] Professor of political science Norman Finkelstein, in an article published in 2007 in Journal of Palestine Studies, held that all the concessions at Camp David came from the Palestinian side and none from the Israeli side.[12] In 2008, Time reported that a former colleague of Ross, former ambassador Daniel Kurtzer published a think-tank monograph containing anonymous complaints from Arab and American negotiators saying Ross was seen as biased towards Israel and not "an honest broker".[13]

Ross's memoir of his experiences, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace tells his side of the story and outlines the key lessons to be drawn.[14][15] His 2007 book, Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World, criticizes the administration of President George W. Bush for its failure to use the tools of statecraft to advance U.S. national interests. He advocates instead for a neoliberal foreign policy which relies on a much broader and more effective use of statecraft.[16] While having worked under both Republican and Democratic administrations, Ross himself is a Democrat.[17]

Post-Clinton-era activities

After leaving his position as envoy, Ross returned to the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as counselor and Ziegler distinguished fellow. He became chair of the Jerusalem-based think tank, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, funded and founded by the Jewish Agency in 2002.[18]

During these years he taught classes at Marquette University, Brandeis University, Georgetown University and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University."[2] He also wrote frequently for publications like The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Jerusalem Post, The New Republic, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal and worked as a foreign affairs analyst for the Fox News channel.[19]

Ross was a noted supporter of the Iraq war and he signed two Project for a New American Century (PNAC) letters in support of the war in March 2003.[20] However, he opposed some of the Bush Administration's policies for post-war reconstruction.[13] He also opposed Bush's policy of avoiding direct talks with Iran.[2]

According to Wall Street Journal, Ross, along with James Steinberg and Daniel Kurtzer, were among the principal authors of presidential candidate Barack Obama’s address on the Middle East to AIPAC in June 2008.[21] It was viewed as the Democratic nominee’s most expansive on international affairs.[22]

Obama Administration positions

Ross was appointed Special Advisor for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on February 23, 2009.[23] On June 25, 2009 the White House announced that Ross was leaving the State Department to join the National Security Council staff as a Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for the "Central Region" with overall responsibility for the region. That region includes the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Pakistan and South Asia.[24]

Controversies

For background, see Positions on Jerusalem

Ross states in his book The Missing Peace that he and other American negotiators pushed Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barack to accept Palestinian sovereignty over Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem during the Middle East Peace Summit at Camp David.[10] Ross wrote part of Barack Obama's speech to AIPAC during the 2008 Presidential campaign, and the speech stated that "Jerusalem is Israel's capital" and that it should not be divided again. The Jerusalem Post reported in November 2008 that, according to Ross, these were "facts." However, Ross stated that the "third point," which is the position of the United States since the Camp David Accords, is that the final status of the city will be resolved by negotiations.[25] However, journalist Philip Weiss has criticized Ross as actually holding the "Jerusalem Must Not Be Divided" stance.[26]

Awards and honors

President Clinton awarded Ross the Presidential medal for "Distinguished Federal Civilian Service" and Secretaries Baker and Albright presented him with the State Department’s highest award. Ross has received the UCLA Medal, the university's highest honor. He has also received honorary doctorates from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Syracuse University and Amherst College.[citation needed]

Bibliography

  • Acting with Caution: Middle East Policy Planning for the Second Reagan Administration. Policy Papers #1. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. 1985.
  • Reforming the Palestinian Authority: Requirements for Change. Policy Focus #43. Washington Institute for Near East Policy. August 2002.
  • The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. August 2004. ISBN 0-374-19973-6.
  • Foreword for: Levitt, Matthew (May 1, 2006). Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-11053-7.
  • Statecraft: And How to Restore America's Standing in the World. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. June 2007. ISBN 0-374-29928-5.
  • Myths, Illusions, and Peace: Finding a New Direction for America in the Middle East, with David Makovsky, Viking, 2009, ISBN 0670020893 ISBN 978-0670020898.

References

  1. ^ Landler, Mark (2009-02-24). "Negotiator picked for post at U.S. State Dept". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 2009-02-24.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Washington Post "WhoRunsGov" profile on Dennis Ross, Accessed March 1, 2009.
  3. ^ a b c d e Biography of Dennis Ross, Counselor and Ziegler Distinguished Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
  4. ^ James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush's War Cabinet, Viking, 2004, 79-81.
  5. ^ Clayton Swisher, The Truth about Camp David, Nation Books, 35, 2004.
  6. ^ Clayton Swisher, 39.
  7. ^ Tired are the peacemakers: tales from the Arab-Israeli negotiating table, Washington Monthly, September 2004.
  8. ^ Avi Shlaim, The Lost Steps, The Nation, August 30, 2004.
  9. ^ Israel’s Lawyer Washington Post, 23 May 2005
  10. ^ a b Dennis Ross. August 2004. The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. ISBN 0-374-19973-6.
  11. ^ a b Clyne, Meghan. Kalb Upbraids Harvard Dean Over Israel, New York Sun, March 21, 2006. Accessed August 17, 2007.
  12. ^ Norman G. Finkelstein, "The Camp David II Negotiations: How Dennis Ross Proved the Palestinians Aborted the Peace Process", Journal of Palestine Studies, Winter 2007, Accessed 19 February 2009.
  13. ^ a b Obama's Conservative Mideast Pick, Massimo Calabresi, Time, 16 July 2008.
  14. ^ Glen Frankel, Book Review: So Close and Yet So Far, Washington Post, August 22, 2004; BW06.
  15. ^ Exhausted Are the Peacemakers, 'New York Times Book Review, 2004.
  16. ^ Columbia Current Book Review of Statecraft by Jordan C. Hirsch.
  17. ^ The Missing Peace, Dennis Ross Interviewed by Nonna Gorilovskaya, Mother Jones October 20, 2004
  18. ^ Ross: Risk of war, Ynet, June 7, 2002.
  19. ^ Dennis Ross on Fox News Sunday, Fox News, April 21, 2002.
  20. ^ Project for a New American Century “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” March 19, 2003 and “Second Statement on Post-War Iraq,” March 28, 2003.
  21. ^ Obama's AIPAC speech. Text as prepared for delivery
  22. ^ Obama's Mideast Experts Emphasize Talks, Jay Solomon, Wall Street Journal, June 16, 2008; A7
  23. ^ U.S. State Department Press release.
  24. ^ Glenn Kessler, White House Makes it Official on Ross, Washington Post, June 25, 2009.
  25. ^ Dennis Ross tells 'Post' why Obama. The Jerusalem Post. Published Nov 1, 2008.
  26. ^ Jerusalem Must Not Be Divided, Says Dennis Ross, Philip Weiss blog, November 2, 2008.

See also

External links

Interviews

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