T. Belman. Israel should have no illusions about Ross. He makes it crystal clear that Israel must submit to international expectations. No construction east of wall. It is important to remember that the US micromanaged the location of the wall. She wanted it as close to the ceasefire lines as possible. From day one almost they have been dedicated to forcing us to give up these territories. Why? What’s in it for them? They are more committed to our retreat then to get Russia to retreat from Crimea or Ukraine, defeating ISIS, removing Assad or getting Saudi Arabia to stop supporting radical Islam. The simple answer is that they don’t want to jeopardize their oil interests in the ME or alienate the Arabs or Muslims. Yet they were prepared to alienate the Gulf states by doing the Iran deal. Why is it such a big deal for them to support what Israel wants especially now that they are energy independent.
Thankfully if Trump is elected, this will no longer be the case.
If Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wins the US presidential elections, her administration ought to launch a backdoor initiative to force changes in Israeli policy, said former Clinton adviser Dennis Ross on Thursday.
During a panel discussion at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Ross said the public disputes between Israel and the Obama administration were counter-productive, which is why he thinks future involvement in the region by a President Hillary Clinton would ideally not be undertaken as a “big public initiative,” but as “efforts behind the scenes.”
Ross also proposed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be taking steps toward peace, “even though negotiations with the Palestinian Authority (PA) won’t work now.” Ross claimed that Netanyahu “does not want to make the difficult choice between his domestic interests and what the international community expects.”
Ross took particular issue with the existence and expansion of Israeli settlements in Judea-Samaria and the Jordan Valley, saying “[Netanyahu] should, at a minimum, announce an official policy that there will be no further Israeli construction east of the security barrier.”
Such unilateral concessions would be consistent with “the traditional Zionist way of shaping your own destiny,” according to Ross. He continued to say that “if you could create the circumstances that would force [Netanyahu] to make that historic choice, I think he would.”
Twice, the former ambassador said Israelis need to realize “they can’t get [peace] on the cheap.”
Notwithstanding the current strained relations between Israel and America, Ross — who served as President Bill Clinton’s special envoy to the Middle East — insisted that President Obama “considers himself a genuine friend of Israel — the kind of friend who doesn’t let his friend drive drunk.”
The former ambassador’s comments provoked a strong response from fellow panelist Elliott Abrams, who acted as assistant secretary of state under President Ronald Reagan and served as President George W. Bush’s deputy national security adviser.
Abrams asserted that senior White House aides traditionally step in to patch relations when the president does not get along with a foreign leader, but, during the Obama administration, “the White House staff has made things worse” when it comes to Netanyahu.
Abrams singled out National Security Adviser Susan Rice for having harmed the US-Israel relationship, recalling last year’s incident in which an unnamed White House official used an obscenity in characterizing Netanyahu, but “was never punished for that ugly remark.” Abrams said, “If the president and his national security adviser wanted such talk to stop, it would have.”
In response, Ross claimed that “things like that didn’t happen under Tom Donilon,” Rice’s predecessor. However, several audience members pointed out that there were a number of gaffes during Donilon’s term, including Obama’s open-mic moment in 2011, when he bemoaned to then-French President Nicolas Sarkozy that he “has to deal with [Netanyahu] every day,” and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s assertion at the 2012 Saban Forum that Israel has a “lack of empathy” for “the pain of an oppressed people,” referring to the Palestinians.
Ross also seemed to hold the Israeli government responsible for some of the difficulties in enforcing the terms of the Iranian nuclear agreement, saying, “More could have been accomplished if Netanyahu had pressed for the creation of a Joint Implementation Committee, as I proposed.
Israeli historian Benny Morris and former Haaretz correspondent Natasha Mozgovaya also took part in the panel, which was moderated by Robert J. Lieber, a Georgetown University professor of government and international affairs.
I think that you should include the PLO 1974 Phased Plan under “Important Documents” on the Israpundit home page: http://www.iris.org.il/plophase.htm
Everything the Palestinian Authority has done from Arafat to Abbas and even Hamas has been consistent with it. That is why talk of concessions or two-state solutions is madness or treason or both. It has ten points but Articles 2 and three are especially relevant:
“The Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favour of our people and their struggle.
The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.”
as the accompanying article explains: “Speaking just after the 1993 revelation of the Israel-PLO accord, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat announced that the historic agreement “will be a basis for an independent Palestinian state in accordance with the Palestine National Council resolution issued in 1974…. The PNC resolution issued in 1974 calls for the establishment of a national authority on any part of Palestinian soil from which Israel withdraws or which is liberated.” (Radio Monte Carlo, 1 September 1993)
It is worth noting that the PLO’s term for the self-rule council now in place in Gaza and the West Bank is the “Palestinian National Authority,” echoing the language of the Phased Plan…”
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A lot of liberal Jews believe that they are pro_Israel but are really antisemitic. They should look at themselves in the mirror.
Much to his dismay, I documented his perfidy:
http://jewishexponent.com/opinion/2016/04/why-dennis-ross-pushed-for-a-doomed-camp-david-ii-the-untold-story
Why Dennis Ross Pushed for a Doomed Camp David II: The Untold Story
APRIL 14, 2016
By: Robert B. Sklaroff
Israel barely survived a set-up for disaster at Camp David II in 2000 during President Bill Clinton’s summit.
Israel is still dealing with the repercussions of Clinton’s having pressured Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to exchange “land for promises” uttered by Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat In in English but, alas, not in Arabic. Dennis B. Ross, author of the ill-fated Clinton Parameters for a two-state solution, almost pulled it off.
On March 30, Ross admitted he had committed two errors during the lead-up to this near-debacle — while promoting his latest book at Temple Beth Zion-Beth Israel.
He never before had ‘fessed up, including in his semi-autobiographical tomes. This newly-revealed narrative emerged only after he responded to my questions, carefully structured to forestall evasion.
I first quoted two people-in-the-know who had met with participants in two missions to Israel sponsored by the American Jewish Committee: Daniel C. Kurtzer, the American ambassador to Egypt and a member of Ross’s Office of the Special Middle East Coordinator, and Efraim Halevy, the head of the Mossad. Both blamed Ross for advising the event be held, despite widespread awareness that Yasir Arafat had privately maintained — regardless of what land would be “returned” — that he would refuse to recognize Israel as a “Jewish state.”
I had asked Ross this same question a decade ago, when he had been the keynote speaker at Cheltenham High School’s “Five Star Forum” adult education series. At that time, I had quoted Kurtzer, while Ross had blamed Halevy. Yet, a year later, after being serendipitously confronted with this claim, Halevy doubled-down on his recollection of Ross’s culpability for advising the event transpire.
So, having been informed of this serial finger-pointing exercise, what did Ross reveal, for the first time last week?
First, he said he relented to Clinton’s demand that any conference be held prior to the presidential nominating conventions of 2000 and, therefore, he felt pressured to convene the summit before he had prepared adequately for it. As an aside, he admitted that he viewed this as a unique opportunity, for gaining concessions would be easier from the Labor government of Ehud Barak than from any Likud regime. That’s why he had pushed for Palestinian Arab sovereignty in the Old City of Jerusalem, cited in his book The Missing Peace.
Second, he said he should have prepped each side to ensure their constituents would accept a peace pact. As an aside, he admitted that awareness of this omission had only occurred to him recently. That’s why he had ignored the presence of the so-called “Intifada II” that Arafat had already launched.
Time didn’t permit further probing of these obvious glitches in his narrative.
As a follow-up, he claimed he had opposed the Iran nuclear capitulation pact last year, despite his not having done so unequivocally during speeches such as what he delivered at Har Zion Temple. In any case, Ross’ efforts to satisfy Clinton’s quest for a Nobel Peace Prize — over the corpse of eretz Yisrael — were fortuitously dashed by a recalcitrant Arafat.
And now we know why Ross initiated this fool’s errand.
Robert B. Sklaroff, M.D., is a physician-activist in Philadelphia. He may be contacted at rsklaroff@gmail.com.