At Jarusalem conference, Ambassador Dennis Ross says Israel, US likely to converge on issues of Iran, Syria and “Arab Awakening.”
2013 is going to be a very decisive year for the second Obama administration, Ambassador Dennis Ross, a councilor at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy said in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Speaking to a joint conference of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Ross forecast that the three priorities of the Obama administration that would be in convergence with Israel would be Iran, Syria and what he termed, the “Arab Awakening” as distinct from the Arab Spring.
The potential point of divergence from Israel would be that of the Palestinian issue, he said. With regard to Iran, Ross was hopeful that the problem of nuclearization could be settled diplomatically. If force has to be used, he said the question has to be answered about what can be done to create the right kind of context for force and what strategy can be employed for the day after, “because anything that is destroyed can be rebuilt.”
With regard to Syria, Ross warned that the conflict there could easily radiate outside, and noted that this is already happening. What happens to the Syria stock of chemical weapons is a matter of concern for both the US sand Israel.
Ross stated that the particular focus of the Arab Awakening was Egypt, and the reason he called it an awakening was because for the first time people could see themselves as citizens with a voice instead of subjects on whom the regime imposes its views.
Ross also urged Israel to change the dynamic vis-a-vis the Palestinians because at the moment there is a “dynamic of disbeleif on both sides,” he said.
By Greer Fay Cashman
(The Journal of Turkish Weekly)
