Sunday, March 03, 2013

Dennis Ross hasn't changed his swing

All one needs to do is to read the strike-out king's latest epistle to understand why he has been so singularly unsuccessful as a peace processor.  Ross offers tips to Palestinians and Israelis for confidence building as though the two belligerent parties were equal in power.  He never even mentions the role of the U.S.  This is not surprising. Ross is fond of promoting the fiction (much mentioned by B. Netanyahu) that the U.S. should do not more than facilitate face-to-face negotiations.  Indeed, Ross has argued that instead of leaning on Israel, the U.S. should do everything possible to foster Israeli security and to shield from the occupying power from international pressure (as it did in December 2012 when the U.S. vetoed a UN Security Council Resolution calling upon Israel to stop settlement construction in Jerusalem; the vote was 1:14).

Ross's problem is that he insists on playing softball against hardball teams, which is why he has struck out so consistently.

No comments: