The Middle East is not a logical place, so how can logical and moderate plans for peace work? So said a questioner to Ambassador Dennis Ross, the former U.S. envoy to the region, during Ross’s presentation Sunday afternoon at the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center as part of its Jewish Book & Culture Fair.
Ross appeared to agree that Middle East politics are often illogical, but also replied that “the answer to illogic is not to become illogical.” The job at hand there, he told an audience that a JCC official estimated at about 350, is “to find ways to resolve” the Israeli-Arab conflict so that “the outcome benefits both sides or dissatisfies both sides equally.”
But in order to do that in the climate of possibilities that has opened with the death of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat — who Ross said was willing to tell brazen lies rather than agree to end the Palestinians’ conflict with Israel — the Arab world, Israel, the Palestinian Arabs and the U.S. government will have to adjust their attitudes and policies.
The Arab world’s leaders, Ross said, “will have to accept the concept of mutual compromise” as a legitimate way of dealing with Israel. To date, none has acknowledged publicly an appreciation of the concessions that Israel has offered or made, Ross contended. Doing this “would make things easier” for all parties, he said.
Israel, for its part, “has to be prepared to give up control of the Palestinians” in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Ross said. He acknowledged that figuring out how to do this while defending Israelis from terrorists “will be a challenge.”
Still, Ross contended, there can be no peace between Israel and Palestinians if the Palestinians feel that Israel and Israelis control their lives — if to travel they must go through Israeli checkpoints, if they need Israel’s permission to open a business or construct a building, etc.
As for the Palestinians themselves, they have to “give up terrorism once and for all,” Ross said. Arafat, Ross said, “never discredited terrorism as a tool” and “never said killing Israeli civilians was wrong.”
Finally, the U.S. government has to “get back in the game” and become “active diplomatically,” because “this is a moment” that “we’d better not miss.”
The U.S. can be particularly helpful in making sure that the Palestinians hold elections for their new leaders, particularly since to do that requires convening new talks with Israel to get Israel to reduce its presence in Palestinian lives, Ross said.
“The Palestinians need elections more than anybody,” Ross emphasized. “They are afraid of having their own civil war.”
And yet, asked an audience member during the question session, what would it mean if the Palestinians in their election chose the popular West Bank Fatah chief Marwan Barghouti, now serving multiple life sentences in Israel for planning murders of Israelis?
Though Ross said that Barghouti is not running from his jail cell, his election would mean the Palestinians are still wedded to “a politics of symbolism and statements, not substance and reality.”
Two purposes
Ross came to speak in connection with the recent release of his book, “The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace.”
He said he wrote the book for two reasons: To “debunk mythologies” about the Middle East and to “point the way to the future.”
After defining mythologies as “untruths told over and over again” to the point that they become “unquestioned and treated as if they are indisputable fact,” Ross discussed two examples from the many treated in his book for the JCC audience.
One was the claim that the Palestinians “have made no concessions” to Israel. Arafat may not have accepted any, Ross said, but his negotiators in fact offered many, including establishment of three blocs for Jewish settlers in the West Bank and dividing Jerusalem between Jews and Arabs.
This shows that there are “credible Palestinians” for Israel to talk to about making real agreements, Ross contended. “Who blocked them? Arafat, and he’s gone,” Ross said.
The other myth, believed by many Palestinians and Western “peace activists,” is that former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000 offered Arafat an unviable state consisting of Palestinian islands surrounded by Israeli settlements, soldiers, roads, etc.
Ross said that his book contains maps showing what Israel really offered — including “100 percent of Gaza, 97 percent of the West Bank” — and what Arafat said he was offered. “If it was so bad, why did he lie about it?” Ross asked.
But while Ross offered hope for the future, he cautioned that nobody can “impose peace or democracy” on the Middle East. “You have to create the conditions for both. And you have to work at it systematically.”
Afterward, as he was getting ready to sign copies of his book for purchasers, Ross told The Chronicle that he had been speaking to many audiences throughout the country and that his reception had been “extraordinary. People are hungry to try to understand” the Middle East.
His appearance was co-sponsored by the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations.
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