Dennis Ross | The American Task Force on Palestine

Some See Extended Olive Branch For Israel In Ross Appointment to NSC
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jewish Daily Forward
by Nathan Guttman - July 2, 2009 - 12:00am

The promotion of Middle East adviser Dennis Ross to a senior White House position may open the door to a more positive tone by the United States toward the Israeli government, experts believe.

Dennis Ross: The Most Important Dossier
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Asharq Alawsat
by Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed - March 1, 2009 - 1:00am

There are many political envoys in the administration of the new American President, Barack Obama. But assigning diplomat Dennis Ross the dossier of Iran and the Gulf means that his [mission] is the most serious and important of all. Despite the importance of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its historic value, it remains confined to a 35-year-old case, counting the years from the last war that changed the political situation. It can continue as it is, with its disputes and wars confined in the area of its conflicts.

Editor's Notes: From the West Bank to Teheran
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by David Horovitz - February 26, 2009 - 1:00am

Will the Obama administration urge Israel to halt settlement building, in order to help create a regional climate more conducive to pressuring Iran? It's not clear what had delayed the much-anticipated appointment of former Clinton administration special Middle East coordinator Dennis Ross, finally announced in mid-week, as the State Department's new point man on Iran. Actually, it's still not absolutely clear that Ross is Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's point man on Iran, since he has formally been designated her "special adviser for the Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia."

Veteran Mideast negotiator will be Clinton's Iran advisor
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Los Angeles Times
by Paul Richter - February 25, 2009 - 1:00am

Reporting from Washington -- Veteran Mideast peace negotiator Dennis B. Ross, who was widely expected to be named special envoy to Iran, has been given a less ambitious mission as the Obama administration continues to weigh how best to deal with the Islamic Republic. President Obama named prominent negotiators to represent the administration in the Middle East and South Asia, and Ross was expected to be given a corresponding assignment for Iran.

Embers of Mideast peace in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Christian Science Monitor
(Editorial) January 20, 2009 - 1:00am

With the Gaza war at a strategic pause with a cease-fire, hopes for peace may now depend on Barack Obama's likely point man for the Middle East, Dennis Ross. He promises a new style of "statecraft" in dealing with Israeli-Palestinian issues. His usual first tactic after such flare-ups is to look for small steps to rebuild trust. But is there any trust to come out of the ruins of Gaza? Yes, once the world decides to look for it and if a declining number of peacemakers on both sides don't give up hope for a solution.

The Return of Dennis Ross
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Middle East Times
January 20, 2009 - 1:00am

The return of veteran U.S. peace envoy Dennis Ross to his old beat on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process should receive a qualified welcome across the region: Ross and the policies of reconciliation that he can be guaranteed to energetically promote will be a vast improvement on the malign neglect of the past eight years practiced by President George W. Bush.

Ross: Hamas cannot be allowed to rebuild
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
January 4, 2009 - 1:00am

Dennis Ross said the United States should back a cease-fire in Gaza only if it ensures that Hamas "can't rebuild." "We want some stability," said Ross, a former top Middle East negotiator in the Clinton administration, in a talk at Temple Beth Ami in Rockville, Md. "If Hamas is left with the capability to rearm," he said, then the current conflict will have been "just a prelude" to the next round. He hoped that some sort of "enforcement mechanisms" to restrain the terrorist group could be developed in any kind of truce.

Obama team's warring Middle East views
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Politico
by Ben Smith - December 6, 2008 - 1:00am

President-elect Barack Obama and his presumptive secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton, both pledged during the campaign to press for peace in the Middle East. But the Middle East conflict is, perhaps unsurprisingly, already playing out on a small scale within Obama’s own transition. Top policy jobs haven’t been filled — the org chart, insiders say, hasn’t even been drawn — but Middle East politics watchers, and Obama backers concerned with Israel, are carefully eyeing the interplay between two of his most important advisers on the Middle East.

ATFP Briefs House Committee: 'Timely US Participation in Palestinian, Israeli Security Essential'
Press Release - Contact Information: Hussein Ibish - February 10, 2005 - 1:00am

Washington DC, Feb. 10 -- American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) testified today at a U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations briefing on “The Way Forward in the Mideast Peace Process.” The committee heard testimony from Henry A. Kissinger, former Secretary of State; Dennis A. Ross, former chief Middle East peace negotiator; Ziad Asali, President of ATFP; and Danielle Pletka, Vice President Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute.