The Middle East Transition
Washington DC is, of course, currently full of people jockeying for jobs. In most of these cases, the stakes are very high for the individuals involved, but pretty low for the country and the world. That’s because on most issues, the policy disagreements between Democrats mainstream enough to be seriously in contention for positions aren’t that huge. But on a couple of issues the personnel fights could have big policy implications. One such fight concerns education personnel and another concerns policy toward the Middle East peace process where the battle seems to be coming down to Dennis Ross versus Dan Kurtzer.
I could imagine a scenario in which Ross is appointed to something key, his appointment reassures the more Likud-friendly elements of American Jewish opinion, and then he turns in an inspired Nixon-goes-to-China performance. But that would be a hope.
It’s a little bit difficult to ever ascertain anyone’s exact views on Israel-Arab issues because everyone is for peace and everyone is against terrorism. But Ross has a disturbing habit of palling around with neocons. He was, for example, a big fan of invading Iraq. He signed a report on Iran policy authored by AEI’s Michael Rubin that basically called for sham negotiations as a prelude to military action. At the Washington Institute for Near East Policy he has a number of neocon associates, including the odious Daniel Pipes.
At a few stages during the campaign, and with some of his early national security picks — perhaps most notably General James Jones as National Security Adviser — Obama has indicated a desire for a bold new approach to these issues. Leaning on Ross as the major policymaker for Israel and its neighbors would signal the reverse — an approach to the issue dominated by caution and domestic politics in a way that would make serious progress unlikely.
31 Responses to “The Middle East Transition”
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December 15th, 2008 at 11:10 am
But Ross has a disturbing habit of palling around with neocons.
That really should be sufficient to ding him. If the Obama victory merely results in the binding the neocons and neocon friendlies to a larger part of the Democratic Party, the scope of the victory needs to reassessed.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:11 am
Leaning on Ross as the major policymaker for Israel and its neighbors would signal the reverse — an approach to the issue dominated by caution and domestic politics in a way that would make serious progress unlikely.
Why is there any indication that Ross – or anyone else not named Barack Obama – would be a “major policymaker for Israel”? Obama has been pretty clear throughout that all of these people he’s appointing will give him advice and feedback but that ultimately, he’s going to be calling the shots. Maybe he won’t, but I see no reason to assume that he’ll proceed in that way on other issues and not on Israel.
December 15th, 2008 at 11:22 am
I could imagine a scenario in which Ross is appointed to something key, his appointment reassures the more Likud-friendly elements of American Jewish opinion, and then he turns in an inspired Nixon-goes-to-China performance. But that would be a hope.
Indeed. And an idle and irresponsible hope at that.
I think there should now be a standard encyclopedia entry now under “Nixon to China” that describes that phrase’s contemporary usage as an all purpose gesture of forlorn wishing and idle conceit that the results of a given personnel decision will be the exact opposite of what reason would suggest is most probable. For example, “Well, appointing Grover Norquist as director of OMB doesn’t look good, but Norquist might pull a Nixon to China and launch a New New Deal with massive amounts of progressive new government spending.”
December 15th, 2008 at 11:43 am
Kurtzer is probably better than Ross. But I have a truly radical and crazy proposal: that a new president eager to restore the abdicated role to which the US once aspired of being an “honest broker” with a realistic chance of actually resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rather than simply looking busy, making speeches and pretending work on resolving the conflict, might choose a Middle East representative who is not Jewish – nor an Arab for that matter. Isn’t it just possible that a guy without a dog in the fight is more likely to be seen as an honest broker than a guy who does have a dog in the fight? If I’m an Arab in the Middle East, what degree of prima facie trust can I give to either one of these men? Kurtzer is the commissioner of the Israeli Baseball League for heaven’s sake!
December 15th, 2008 at 11:50 am
If Mr. Yglesias had his druthers, he would consul President Elect Osama to appoint James Earl Carter, Juan Cole, Noam Chomsky, and Rashid Khalili as his Middle East advisers. Mr. Yglesias is a perfect example of the type of commentator that Prof. Alvin Rosenfeld of The Un. of Indiana discussed in his essay described in the attached link.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1228728151848&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
December 15th, 2008 at 12:49 pm
Still no grandchildren for SLC, I see.
As I’ve said before, perhaps the biggest obstacle to peace in the middle east is his children’s inability to reproduce.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
This post was very interestingly cautious and…diplomatic. Watch this policy space.
December 15th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
Watch this policy space.
It doesn’t matter. Obama’s Israeli-Palestinian policy will quickly shape up to be little more than window dressing for bipartisan continuity, with some symbolic Democratic flourishes for the impressionable. Maybe a fancy speech here and there; and another phony-baloney peace process supervised by the usual cast of Israel-serving characters.
I would recommend watching other policy spaces, particularly the domestic ones, where Obama actually seems prepared to accomplish something.
December 15th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
People like SLC are the biggest threat to the existence of the state of Israel. If animals of his ilk succeed in convincing people that the only alternative to supporting Likudnite monsters like himself is the elimination of the State of Israel, all sane moral people will choose the latter option.
December 15th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
It’s probably just me, but in that photo, doesn’t Ross look like he’s auditioning to play W. F. Buckley in the bioflick?
December 15th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
There’s only a handful of American Jews who possess the moral courage and impassioned intelligence to call out Israel for its genocidal ethnic cleansing campaign against the Palestinians. Norm Finkelstein and Michael Neumann come to mind. Maybe, Tony Judt. But, Michael Ledeen would have a better shot at being an Obama-Biden Middle East envoy than them. Otherwise, nothing would scuttle the chances for Middle East Peace, nothing be more hidebound and gormless than enlisting the help of some feckless, hasbara vuntz a la Dennis Ross or Richard Holbrooke. What a grotesque travesty of fairness to 3 million Palestinians and the greater Islamic World.
December 15th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Re Trevor
Hey, in order to satisfy Mr. Trevor, President Elect Osama should appoint Norman Finkelstein as his Middle East adviser. How about David Duke and Don Black? That’s about the mentality of Mr. Trevor, the son of a whore.
Re sanity says
Mr. sanity says actually sounds like his couterparts at the Israelinsider who say the same thing about lefties like Mr. sanity says.
December 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Don’t be too excited about Kurtzer. His brother lives on a settlement in the occupied West Bank.
December 15th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
The Israeli Palestinian situation will not be resolved during the Obama administration.
What can be resolved is those aspects of American domestic policy that makes the Middle East this important American interest and that leave America “levered” about the situation, which is to say, oil dependency.
Without the oil addiction, the US could dictate terms to both sides.
December 16th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Matt actually gets one right – the first time in days? Weeks?
Ross would be bad news. Anybody thinking that Obama is picking him because of his advice while intending to overrule his advice is just sadly mistaken and pathetically naive. The reality is that Obama has next to zero knowledge of foreign policy issues – on a par with Matt, almost. Which is why he’s picking these lames like Emanual, Clinton, and Ross. Given this post, however, it’s clear that Matt knows better than Obama about said Ross.
Hey, SLC, David Duke probably would be better than Ross, at least if he got Obama to kick Israel in the ass. Hard to say whether a neo-Nazi wouldn’t just support Israel, though, given Israel’s ascendancy to the Nazi title.
December 16th, 2008 at 10:04 am
Hack (appropriate name) Israel isn’t the one that is purposely timing its rocket attacks to 8 AM and 3 PM when kids are walking to school. That’s Hamas doing that when they launch their rockets into Sderot in Israel, every day. Your name calling shows more about you than about Israel.
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