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Speaking via Zoom for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism & Policy on Jan. 31, Ross offered some expected, perfunctory criticism of Hamas, Iran and Hezbollah. But again and again, he managed to bring in one-sided and unfair criticism of Israel.
Referring to Israel’s counter-terrorism actions in Judea and Samaria, Ross said: “West Bank violence [by Arabs] is not disconnected from Israel’s policies in the West Bank.”
That’s just absurd. The terrorists are not responding to Israeli policies. They were murdering Jews long before there were any settlements or so-called occupied territories. They oppose Israel’s existence, not its borders. It’s these terrorists who are the aggressors, and Israelis must respond to them.
Regarding Gaza, Ross said: “The Israelis haven’t done everything they could to spare civilians in Gaza.” Is he kidding? The Israelis have refrained from striking terrorist targets where there are civilians. They have personally warned civilians to evacuate, again and again, through leaflets and phone calls and public announcements. They have risked the lives of their own soldiers by going house to house, instead of just bombing from the air. What else can they possibly do?
Ross also commented on the recent ruling by the International Court of Justice—the ruling that failed to condemn Hamas and demanded that Israel give more aid to Palestinians in Gaza. He said the ruling was “not irresponsible” and that it was provoked by “extreme statements by Israeli politicians.” That’s simply nonsense. The statement that the court cited most prominently was made by Israel’s left-leaning president, Isaac Herzog, who said that many ordinary Gazans supported the Hamas massacre, which was a perfectly reasonable statement of fact.
The practice of saying a few perfunctory crucial words about terrorists and then “balancing” it with criticism of Israel is typical of the grotesque “even-handedness” that Ross and his colleagues pushed during his many years at the U.S. State Department.
That approach was wrong then, and it’s wrong now. There can be no “balance” between good and evil. Israel and the Palestinian Authority are not on the same moral level. Israel is America’s loyal, reliable, democratic ally. The P.A. is a terror-sponsoring, hate-mongering dictatorship.
In recent months, Ross has been saying that Israel should allow the Hamas leadership to leave Gaza in exchange for the release of the remaining hostages. He points to Israel’s decision in 1982, under U.S. pressure, to allow PLO chief Yasser Arafat and thousands of PLO terrorists to leave besieged Beirut.
But Ross never mentions what happened after Arafat left. He didn’t retire. He set up PLO terrorist headquarters in Tunisia, and then 20 additional years of terrorism followed—suicide bombings, intifadas, mass shootings, stabbings. Ross’s new plan would have the same result.
This is the same Dennis Ross who has acknowledged—on the op-ed page of The Washington Post in 2014—that he pressured Israel to allow Hamas to import concrete. Ross wrote that the Israelis opposed his demand because they feared that Hamas would use the cement to build terror tunnels. Ross insisted the concrete would be used to build houses, and because of his pressure, the Israelis gave in. We all know the result.
In his Zoom talk this week, Ross had the chutzpah to mention that Hamas used imported cement to build tunnels instead of homes, though never mentioned that he was the one who helped them to get that cement into Gaza in the first place.
Ross is frequently quoted in The New York Times and invited to appear on television shows and webinars. He’s treated as if his past involvement in Mideast diplomacy makes him an expert on how to make peace today. Yet every one of those diplomatic efforts failed. He has never facilitated real peace because he continues to pretend that both sides are to blame for the absence of peace.
The Jewish world is full of talented speakers, thinkers and writers. Surely, our institutions should be able to find more thoughtful lecturers than those same tired, old critics of Israel with their familiar and disastrous proposals.
Moshe Phillips is a commentator on Jewish affairs whose writings appear regularly in the American and Israeli press.
Same old LeftTwa, he thinks that doing more of the same will somehow create a different result. Listen to what that morons proposes and do the the exact opposite
How do US Administrations other than Trump’s always manage to find Jewish emissaries to undermine Israel? Some of these continue to be deemed as pundits after careers of total cluelessness. They’re often recycled. Maybe it’s like being a celebrity; you stay one forever.
No one in their right mind should listen to or hire this Jew Hater again.
I did leave out the Jew hating Left because they are not in their right minds.
look and see when Israel state was formed. hamas l believe was formed some 30 plus years later due to Israels expansion. A Palistinian state should be formed, Israel pushed back to its original boundaries. Then if hamas still continue their aggresion they can indeed be called terrorists
And Israel “expansion” happened when the neighboring Arab states around Israel decided it would be a good idea to wipe Israel off the map. But, alas, something went wrong (for them) and Israel “expanded” because to the victor go the spoils. For the same reason, today Texas is US and not Mexican state.
There’s a large cohort of “peace process” veterans still in DC, moving between think tanks, universities, and (particularly) Democrat administrations. It’s all they know. Imagine you’re Dennis Ross, who’s spent most of his adult life doing this, with little to show for it. It’s got to be frustrating. I suppose the consolation is all those gigs he gets for his troubles.
I had a brief encounter with Ross maybe ten years ago. He was giving one of those lectures about the state of the Middle East at a local synagogue. Afterwards, during Q&A, I noted how over the decades in the Middle East the US had gotten so much wrong. Given that, I asked, why should those in the region, who know their neighborhoods better than the US, and will have to live with the consequences, follow US advice. He hemmed and hawed, talked about the Palestinian conflict, saying something like, “Well, we’ve got to try.” That’s all he had.
Presumably he would argue that Israel is also to blame for the incitements to anti-Semitic violence in the Koran, as well, then.