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Ambassador Dennis Ross: now is the time to make peace in the Middle East
By Brian Fitzgerald
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| Dennis Ross, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, said that preserving the cease-fire is the first step in ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Photo by Frank Curran | |
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Tensions continue in the Arab-Israeli conflict, with Israeli troops recently killing three Palestinian teenagers in the Gaza Strip. Palestinian militants retaliated by firing more than 70 mortar bombs at Jewish settlements and Israeli army bases.
Still, former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dennis Ross told an audience at the School of Management Auditorium April 8, both sides — with the help of the United States — have a unique opportunity for peace because of the death last November of Yasser Arafat and the rise to power of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“Yasser Arafat was an icon for the Palestinian people,” said Ross. “Why? He put the Palestinian cause on the map. He got for the Palestinians international recognition and acceptance of their national aspirations, and for that he will always be given credit by the Palestinians.” But Arafat was an impediment to change and reform, Ross insisted, and he was incapable of negotiating peace with the Israeli leadership. Fortunately, according to Ross, Abbas is a pragmatist and a symbol of hope.
Ross, who played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process in the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, inaugurated the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies Yitzhak Rabin Lecture series, speaking about The Missing Peace: Prospects and Possibilities in the Middle East After Arafat. The series was established through a gift by Jonathan Krivine (CAS’72).
Instrumental in helping the Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement, Ross also facilitated the Hebron Accord in 1997. In 2000, peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians collapsed at Camp David and hostilities resumed. But Abbas knows that violence is a barrier to peace, Ross pointed out, and the Palestinian leader believes in coexistence with Israel — a two-state solution. He “believes that Palestinians should never sacrifice or surrender their national rights,” said Ross, “but that the only way to pursue them is through nonviolence and negotiation.”
Ross referred to a poll taken before Arafat became ill. “It showed that between 30 and 35 percent of Palestinians were optimistic about the future,” he said. “After Arafat died, 60 percent were optimistic about the future.”
An informal truce was declared by Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Egypt on February 8; it was conditionally extended last month until the end of the year. Despite the recent violence, Palestinian militants indicated they remained committed to the cease-fire.
Furthermore, Sharon has proven his willingness to cooperate for peace by deciding to withdraw from all 21 settlements in Gaza and evacuate the northernmost corner of the West Bank. “This has generated enormous opposition within Israel,” said Ross. The disengagement is scheduled to begin on July 20. “He will, in fact, carry this off,” he said. “And when he carries it off, it will create an opening” for peace.
Ross talked about his latest book, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), a comprehensive analytical and personal look into the Middle East peace process. “This is not a book about a sense of loss and perpetual failure,” he said. “It is a book about hope, because it’s geared toward lessons learned.” One lesson that stands out is that “nothing ever implements itself by itself. We have a moment today, but it won’t be realized by itself. Another lesson is that whenever you miss a moment [for negotiation] in the Middle East, you are always worse off.”
According to Ross, this moment will be brief. Abbas has a small window of opportunity to show Palestinians that he is committed to improving their quality of life — by helping reverse their declining economy — and fulfilling their desire for self-determination. Economically, the uprising that began in 2000 “has been a catastrophe for the Palestinians,” he said, and they need jobs, especially in construction.
Peace can’t be achieved without U.S. diplomacy, Ross said, and our first goal should be helping define what is or is not permitted in the cease-fire, and determining repercussions for violating the agreement. “It’s a situation that cries out for third party involvement,” he said. “We have to get into this game.”
Ross also said that because of Arafat’s death, Egypt is ready “to play more of a positive role [in the peace talks] than it has for years.” Alternately, he believes that the U.S. should work with the British to make it clear to the Iranian government that there will be a high price to pay for jeopardizing the peace process by supplying Hezbollah with rockets to use against Israel, and pushing Hamas to resume its suicide bombings.
In the four years since the latest uprising, “both sides lost faith in the idea of peacemaking,” said Ross. “Israelis became convinced that the Palestinians would never accept the Jewish state of Israel and that they would never give up terror as an instrument to pursue their objectives. The Palestinians became convinced that the Israelis would never surrender control — that they always would feel the need to control what the Palestinians do. If we look at the Israeli disengagement and withdrawal from Gaza on one hand, Palestinians will see that Israelis actually will give up control. And Palestinians, if they assume their responsibilities and make it clear that they’ll fulfill their side of the bargain,” will establish trust.
Ross said that Israeli withdrawal from Gaza is the chance to provide a model. “If we lose this moment,” he said, “it will be 10 more years before we get another moment like this.”
15
April 2005
Boston University
Office of University Relations