No diplomat has deeper experience of the Israel-Palestine conflict than Dennis Ross. So it pays to heed what he says: “The Palestinian public not only favors reform but is insisting on it. That is the good news. Now the bad: reform is still a longshot for several reasons.”
Like Ross himself, the long-serving US envoy to the Middle East, there are no verbal fireworks in this analysis, or posturing for particular interest groups. On the Middle East, that’s a rare virtue.
Ross was a regular in Davos during the ’90s. Given the regular frustrations of his brief — every time there seemed to be a step forward, there was soon an equivalent step backward — I have long wondered how he stuck to his punishing task for more than a dozen years. It’s good that there are some people with such a deep commitment to achieving peace through steady, painstaking diplomatic efforts.