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February 22, 2002/Adar 10, 5762, Vol. 54, No. 23
Ross still hopeful for lasting peace
BARRY COHEN
Editor
Dennis Ross
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Despite the continuing escalation of nearly 17 months of Palestinian-Israeli violence, Ambassador Dennis Ross says he still believes that peace is achievable.
"I have faith that we're going to see peace eventually, but I have a hard time measuring the time," says Ross. "Time in this context will be measured in blood."
Ross invested more than 12 years at the negotiating table in the administrations of Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, working to facilitate a lasting peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.
"We seemed to be so close," after thousands of hours of discussion, debate, analysis and exploration, notes Ross.
"You name it, we did it," adds Ross, who spoke Jan. 29 at the Major Gifts Event of the 2002 Annual Campaign of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
Ross says officials from Israel and the United States working with Palestinian negotiators falsely believed they were close to finalizing a lasting peace in summer 2000.
"We thought, 'Remove the grievance first, and then attitudes (of the Palestinians) will change,' " explains Ross. As a result, Ehud Barak, Israeli prime minister during the final status negotiations, along with the Israeli- and U.S.-negotiating teams, focused on the status of Jerusalem, borders and the return of Palestinian refugees instead of the attitudes of the Palestinian people.
Ross says he now understands Israelis and Palestinians need to work "people to people ... to break down the barriers, destroy the stereotypes and make it harder to demonize (one another)."
Ross says he is "disheartened" with the ongoing violence, especially since he knows a number of Israeli and Palestinians affected by it.
Much of the current violence, he says, can be blamed on Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat. When faced with the possibility of reaching an agreement with an Israeli and a Palestinian state lying side by side, Arafat failed as a leader, he notes.
"He had not prepared his public for peace. He had not prepared himself," says the ambassador. The Palestinian leader was not capable of redefining himself, according to Ross.
"He could not give up his mythologies," Ross explains. "He had defined himself in terms of the embodiment of the struggle for his people." Ross points out that throughout the summer of 2000, Arafat's negotiators had made significant concessions. They had accepted three Israeli settlements on the West Bank, Jewish neighborhoods on the outskirts of east Jerusalem as part of Jerusalem and Israeli early warning stations "in perpetuity."
Despite these advancements, Arafat was never forced to make the decision about whether he was capable of accepting the concessions and making peace with the Israelis, says Ross.
After the first few months of the current intifada, Ross says Arafat only succeeded in painting himself into a corner.
"A disillusioned Israeli public put (Ariel) Sharon in power," he says. "And if (Arafat) brought (the violence) to a halt, what would he have had to show for it? Sharon was not going to offer him what he had before."
Currently, after a year and a half of violence and hundreds of deaths, Ross says the gulf between Arafat and Sharon and between the Israelis and Palestinians is not based on a loss of "trust or confidence."
"When I hear that said, I dismiss it. ... Both publics have lost faith. They don't believe they have a partner for peace," says Ross.
The peoples will have to reestablish faith before talking about borders, refugees or Jerusalem, he notes.
"The past months have listed casualties measurable not only in blood, but also in psychology," says Ross.
The ambassador says in order to break what he calls "the cycle of revenge," and reestablish faith, the Palestinian people and the Israeli government will face some difficult decisions.
"The ultimate answer is not what the Israelis can do militarily. It's going to be getting the Palestinians to do what they have to do" to establish peace, says Ross.
Before the current intifada, the Palestinian leadership was taking the necessary steps to fulfill their agreements with the Israelis and to control their people, he explains. As a result, for the first time in the history of Israel, a year passed by without a single Israeli fatality due to terrorist violence, he notes.
"The Palestinians have to understand that they have no chance of having their aspirations addressed ... if they don't have a leadership that fulfills its responsibilities. Today they do not," explains Ross.
Most likely, in the near future when Arafat is no longer PA president, says Ross, the Israeli government will have to "lift the thumb off of the Palestinian throat," and loosen its hold on the West Bank and Gaza Strip to grant Arafat's successor the requisite space to establish a foundation of leadership.
Ross stresses that there is no alternative to seeking a lasting peace. For this reason, he had yet to give up hope that that Israelis and the Palestinians will change the status quo for the better.
Meanwhile, the Israelis Ross has befriended say they cannot indefinitely live under the current violent conditions.
As for the Palestinians, he says he knows "what their dreams are. I know what their hopes are. Most of the Palestinians understand that they have a future only if they can live in peace alongside Israel."
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