Obama picks Ross as Mideast envoy

[laststeamtrain]

Source: Financial Times

Obama picks Ross as Mideast envoy

By Daniel Dombey in Washington

Published: January 8 2009 01:19 | Last updated: January 8 2009 01:19

Dennis Ross, a former top diplomat for the George H W Bush and Clinton administrations, will become the Obama administration’s top envoy on the Middle East, an internal email from Mr Ross’s current employer has revealed.

Mr Ross, who previously served as the US envoy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is set to take a wider role as Hillary Clinton’s top adviser for the Middle East as a whole. Ms Clinton herself is due to appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for her confirmation hearing for Secretary of State next Tuesday.

Executives at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the think-tank where Mr Ross works, told the organisation’s board that Mr Ross had “accepted an invitation to join the Obama administration as ambassador-at-large” in a job “designed especially for him,” covering a range of issues from the Palestinian-Israeli conflict to Iran.

The email, first reported by Chris Nelson, a Washington-based foreign policy expert, adds that Mr Ross “will not reprise his previous role as special Arab-Israeli peace envoy, a post that will be held by someone else; rather he will be working closely with both the special envoy and the secretary.”

Read more: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e970d878-dd1f-11dd-a2a9-00007...

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Dennis Ross entry at Source Watch: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dennis_B._Ro...

[EFerrari]

1. LOL

[laststeamtrain]

2. LOL. Cry inside.

A PNAC signatory.

[EFerrari]

3. I know. AIPAC executive director.

I'm glad it's too late to feel hysterical.

[Kolesar]

9. Richard Holbrooke was an enthusiastic supporter of the bush war to remove Saddam Hussein

We are seeing Obama's inexperience in play. I thought that Obama would be a president who did not look like the boot of western imperialism.

[EFerrari]

22. I don't think this is inexperience.

[bdamomma]

14. I didn't see his name on the PNAC list

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_Americ...

[laststeamtrain]

15. Ross signed two PNAC letters:

"After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Ross supported the advocacy work of PNAC, a neoconservative-led letterhead group that advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein in response to the attacks, even if he was not tied to the them.26 Ross signed two PNAC open letters on the situation in post-war Iraq, both published in March 2003. The first of these, “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” was issued on March 19, 2003, the day before the United States began its invasion. The letter argued that Iraq should be seen as the first step in a larger reshaping of the region’s political landscape, contending that the invasion and rebuilding of Iraq could “contribute decisively to the democratization of the wider Middle East.” Other signatories included Max Boot, Eliot Cohen, Thomas Donnelly, Joshua Muravchik, and several other core neoconservatives.27"...http://www.rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/4786.html

Ross signed two PNAC letters: the “Statement on Post-War Iraq,” March 19, 2003, http://web.archive.org/web/20070812114634/www.newameric... ; and the “Second Statement on Post-War Iraq,” March 28, 2003.

[bdamomma]

17. thanks, why did he pick this guy?

[laststeamtrain]

18. Continuity.

So the Military-Industrial-Media complex isn't thrown off-kilter by the change of factions.

Ross seems to overlap between the 'realists' & the neocons. A real employable guy.

I know. I'm cynical.

[SpiralHawk]

4. more of the same old crap

change you can't believe in...

[JFKfanforever]

6. Sad...a slap in the face to the very people we need to reach out to

Who is advising/controlling him?

[leftchick]

12. easy

Rahm/AIPAC. expect continuation of US imperialism at the expense of citizens here and abroad.

[rpannier]

5. Yes...um... He's done so well... Yeah

How could it not be him?

[opihimoimoi]

7. Is this Temp??? WTF??? I smell twoubles....

[and-justice-for-all]

8. "former top diplomat for the George H W Bush"

What the fuck?

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[leftchick]

11. change? hope?

This is beyond the pale.

[chimpymustgo]

16. This heartbreaking.

[cali]

13. This is a really piss poor appointment.

Miller would have been far better.

[closeupready]

19. At this point, a quality appointment would surprise me.

Obama does not know what he's doing, IMO.

[leftchick]

20. more....

Dennis Ross has long associations with the Israeli-Palestinian “peace negotiations.” A member of his Clinton era team, Aaron David Miller, wrote that during 1999-2000 the US negotiating team led by Ross acted as Israel’s lawyer: “we had to run everything by Israel first.” This “stripped our policy of the independence and flexibility required for serious peacemaking. If we couldn’t put proposals on the table without checking with the Israelis first, and refused to push back when they said no, how effective could our mediation be?” According to Wikipedia, Ross is “chairman of a new Jerusalem-based think tank, the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute, funded and founded by the Jewish Agency.”

Clearly, this is not a group of advisors that is going to halt America’s wars against Israel’s enemies or force the Israeli government to accept the necessary conditions for a real peace in the Middle East.

http://karmabanqueradio.com/2008/11/09/989-a-sunday-cro...

[TomClash]

21. I want Malley! nt

[Mosby]

23. Great choice!

He is very knowledgeable about the IP conflict and knows all the major players.