(New York Times) Dennis B. Ross - Secretary of State Kerry should privately go to Palestinian Authority and Israeli leaders and tell them he's planning to issue the following public statement: "I am prepared to work with both sides to produce a permanent status agreement provided I know that each of you is ready to take on the political opposition that you will surely encounter. If you are not, I won't force the issue. Nor will I walk away. Rather, I will focus with both sides on conflict management, instead of conflict resolution." A conflict-management approach would not focus on producing formal agreements, which may be too difficult for both sides. Rather, it would concentrate on brokering smaller understandings and getting the two sides to take parallel or coordinated steps that could improve the reality on the ground. The writer was the chief U.S. negotiator for the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1993 to 2001 and a special assistant to the president for the Middle East and South Asia from 2009 to 2011.
2014-05-22 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive