Middle East diplomat advances plan for a two-state outcome

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — Progress toward achieving a two-state outcome in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will occur only if the two sides re-establish belief in each other, said Dennis Ross, the former special assistant to President Obama, in a lecture at Middlebury College on March 12.

Opinion polls conducted of Israelis and Palestinians indicate that both sides favor the two-state outcome and yet, Ross said, the same polls indicate that both sides believe it will never happen. “The biggest single problem we face today to produce peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is disbelief. Both sides have perceptions of disbelief about the other.”

Ross, a former Middle East envoy for three U.S. presidents who is now the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, appeared at Middlebury to speak on “Israel, the Peace Process, and the Implications of the Arab Awakening” as the guest of the Office of the President and the Rohatyn Center for Global Studies.

“To produce progress and preserve the two-state outcome as a real possibility, something [dramatically different] has to happen. It can’t be more of the same,” and so Ross has put forth a 14-point plan to “change the dynamic” and encourage the two sides to talk with each other again. He said his plan, which was revealed in a

New York Times on March 2, is not intended to take the place of negotiating on borders, security, refugees, settlements, and the fate of Jerusalem – the hard issues in the disagreement. Rather, his proposal is “an agenda for discussion” that he hopes will lead the way to the negotiating table.

The Ross plan calls for the Israelis to demonstrate that they have no intention of expanding further into the West Bank by agreeing to:

— declare that it will build new housing only in settlement blocks and in areas west of the security barrier,

— offer compensation to Israeli settlers who will voluntarily relocate to Israel or to the settlement blocks, and

— begin the construction of new housing inside Israel for the settlers who are willing to move.

The Ross plan beckons the Palestinians to show they are serious about accepting two states by pledging to:

— put the state of Israel on the maps used by Palestinians,

— speak of “two states for two peoples” and acknowledge that there are two national movements and two national identities, and

— commit to building a state of Palestine with a focus on the rule of law.

The diplomat’s plan to suspend disbelief also lays out specific ways that Israel needs to show that it is serious about “ending control” over Palestinians in the West Bank, and puts forth certain methods by which Palestinians need to demonstrate that they will be “good neighbors” and not threaten Israel’s security.

His proposal also advocates for two crucial steps that both sides would have to engage in mutually.