By Gabriel Rom
Former Mideast envoy Dennis Ross spoke to a packed house about Israel, America and the future of the two countries’ relationship Sunday at the Hevesi Jewish Heritage Library in the Forest Hills Jewish Center.
Ross, who played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process, is on a nationwide speaking tour for his book, “Doomed to Succeed: The U.S.-Israel Relationship from Truman to Obama.”
While Ross touched on the prickly relationship between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Barack Obama— “they just have different world views”—and the current flare-up in Israel and Palestine—“the violence is based on completely fallacious claims”—he spent most of his time on the diplomatic history of the US-Israel relationship. The veteran diplomat argued that American presidents have made three primary assumptions that have, until recently underlined this relationship.
The first was that if the U.S. distances itself from Israel, it will gain bargaining power with other Middle East nations. The second was that if the United States cooperates with Israel, it will pay “a terrible price” diplomatically. The third was that the United States can never have a strong position in the region unless the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is solved. Ross argued that these assumptions are partially responsible for decades of misguided policy.
“The essence of Arab concerns relates to their security, their survival, and who threatens it,” he said. “They don’t see Israel as threatening, but they do see their regional competitors as threatening.”
Ross then discussed the four successive administrations—from Eisenhower to Carter—which, operating under these assumptions, concluded that Israel was a security liability.
Eisenhower, Ross said, had both considered enacting an arms embargo against Israel as well as possibly using military force against Israel. Even Ronald Reagan, long considered a defender of Israel, considered suspending arms to Israel and in 1981 made an infamous comment accusing American Jewish organizations of harboring “dual loyalties.” Nevertheless, Ross contended that Reagan fundamentally altered the relationship between the United States and Israel.
“In every administration from Truman to Obama, you had a group that believed Israel is a problem,” Ross said. “But for the first time, Reagan treated Israel as a strategic partner and a regional asset.”
After Reagan, U.S. policy makers began to challenge the assumptions that had dictated their attitude towards Israel and the entire Middle East.
“One of the reasons for this book was to show the continuity of the realities in the Middle East, which have been consistently missed,” Ross concluded. “I wrote this so that the next administration maybe for the first time, will understand the mistakes of the past so they don’t make them again.”
Reach reporter Gabriel Rom by e-mail at grom@
