Dennis Ross does some serious soul searching.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 1 (JTA) — Nobody spent more time with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat during the years of the Oslo peace process than I did.
Why didn’t I see that he was incapable of ending the conflict with Israel? Certainly there were those who claimed he could not be trusted and would never make peace. Why did I think differently?
And comes up with more moral equivalence and the wrong answers.
Ultimately, responsibility must be the hallmark of any process of peacemaking. Palestinians and Israelis must be accountable for the commitments they make. One failing of the Oslo process was that neither side was held to its obligations.
Since 2001, there has been no peace process, only a war between Israelis and Palestinians. Given that legacy and the lack of belief in peacemaking, the first order of business must be stopping the war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip has created an opening to unfreeze the situation. It certainly is creating great ferment among Palestinians as they wrestle with how they will govern themselves, at least within the Gaza Strip.
Why am I not surprised? (via Israel Insider)
