US, Middle East, & Iran Feature: RIP, Dennis Ross

Benjamin Netanyahu & Dennis RossBluntly summarised, Ross's approach was to bully a perceived adversary into negotiations. Israel would only face meaningful talks once the Palestinian Authority had accepted a series of demands; the "international community" would only move to agreement with Iran once Tehran had made the substantial concessions.

It was an approach guaranteed to fail, and it did. Mitchell persisted but finally gave up. There is no foreseeable prospect of an Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which explains why the Palestinians made their move in September for recognition by the United Nations. The window for a resolution with Iran on the nuclear issue closed in November 2009 --- to be fair to Ross, more because of internal politics in Tehran than his politics within the Obama Administration --- and it has never re-opened. With that closure, Ross' vision --- sanctions, more sanctions, and the threat of even tougher action to force Iran to its knees has triumphed over the following two years.

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Israel-Palestine Analysis: The Wishful Thinking Beyond Washington's Bribe to West Jerusalem

Daniel Kurtzer, former U.S. ambassador to Israel, has criticised both West Jerusalem and Washington over the recent US package of "incentives" to Israel in exchange for a 90-day freeze on West Bank settlement construction.

Is the package a bad idea? Possibly, but if you do not have an alternative of showing progress with the Netanyahu Government, then you either offer the carrot or wield the stick. Perhaps the Obama Administration could have challenged the "security-first" approach which Israel perpetually re-produces to impede a two-state solution. But it did not so, leaving the "bribe" as the only option. Kurtzer's argument may have intellectual merit, but in this context, it is just wishful thinking.

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