Ambassador Dennis Ross, a key negotiator in the Middle East peace process under presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton, will speak in 182 Lillis tonight at 7:30 p.m on the future of the Israel-Palestine peace process.
The Jewish students’ group Oregon Hillel is bringing Ross to the University to share his perspectives and experiences working as a negotiator on Middle East policy for more than two decades.
“We don’t often see the person behind the scenes making the negotiations,” said University junior Jonathan Rosenberg. “He really has a strong grasp on the issues.”
Rosenberg, a Grinspoon Israel intern with Oregon Hillel and student senator, has traveled to Israel three times and has seen the consequences of the violence between Israel and Palestine.
“People are tired in the country, Arabs and Jews… they just want the fighting to stop,” he said.
Ross, a UCLA graduate, has worked under four U.S. presidents and his successes include facilitating the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, according to his biography at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy’s Web site.
Under the first Bush administration, Ross was director of the State Department’s Policy Planning Staff and later served as special Middle East coordinator for Clinton.
While Rosenberg believes Ross is a true advocate for creating peace in the Middle East, others disagree on how U.S. policy has handled the conflict.
Cory Eldridge, a 2006 University graduate, said he believes Americans’ perspectives on the negotiations are jaded.
“I think (Palestinians) have reasonable needs, which U.S. negotiators pretty much ignore,” Eldridge said, who studied abroad in Jordan during the 2004-05 school year and spent about a month in Palestine.
“What you hear mostly about Palestine is that they won’t accept anything and want to kill all Israelis,” he said, adding that the alleged generous peace offers “really are horrible.”
Tal Clerman, program director for Oregon Hillel, said Ross uses his conviction and knowledge in dedicating his life to attempting to creating peace in the Middle East.
“He’s taken a more proactive role in getting politicians to the table,” Clerman said.
Eldridge said that, in general, U.S. negotiators in the Middle East are “disillusioned.”
“We don’t see the destruction of Palestine houses… air strikes that leave tens of thousands of Palestinians dead,” he said.
Violence is a term brought up by all perspectives of the conflict.
“It’s a very complicated problem, but a very simple, integral fact of the conflict is hatred and feelings of entitlement on both sides,” Rosenberg said.
Passionate feelings are unavoidable in these conflicts, but Clerman and Rosenberg said they believe Ross, who is Jewish, has upheld a very unbiased opinion throughout his work over the years.
“Part of one of the challenges when he first started was to get Yasser Arafat to trust him,” because he is Jewish, Clerman said.
Clerman said that even students who aren’t knowledgeable about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can learn from Ross’ visit.
“I think it’s important to come out because (students) will probably never see somebody like this again unless it’s on C-SPAN,” he said, adding that students should arrive there early to get a seat.
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