{"id":9185,"date":"2014-04-09T19:15:58","date_gmt":"2014-04-09T19:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohelet.org.il\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/"},"modified":"2014-04-09T19:15:58","modified_gmt":"2014-04-09T19:15:58","slug":"john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/","title":{"rendered":"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross"},"content":{"rendered":"John Kerry&#8217;s conduct makes one wonder where he has been for the past two decades, and whether he ever consulted with US diplomats who learned one or two things about previous botched attempts to reach an agreement between Israel and the PA.\n\nWhen US Secretary of State John Kerry coerced Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) into renewing negotiations in July 2013, Israel was supposedly given a choice between a settlement freeze and the release of Palestinian prisoners. The Israeli government chose (wrongly in my opinion) the second option. And yet, Kerry is now partially blaming the failure of the talks on Israel\u2019s decision not to implement a settlement freeze which never was part of the deal.\n\nKerry also mentioned Israel\u2019s refusal to release the fourth batch of Palestinian prisoners. He did not mention the fact that, on 19 March 2014, Fatah spokesman Ahmad Assaf publicly declared that the PA successfully blackmailed Israel into releasing prisoners (by \u201cthreatening\u201d to pursue membership at UN bodies) and that the only purpose of negotiating (or pretending to negotiate) with Israel is to complete the release of prisoners.\n\nOne wonders where Kerry has been for the past two decades, and whether he ever consulted with US diplomats who learned one or two things about previous botched attempts to reach an agreement between Israel and the PA.\nIn his book The Missing Peace, former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross rebuts Arafat\u2019s claim that he had been promised 90% of the West Bank by the late Yitzhak Rabin: \u201cIn an earlier briefing I told the president that this was one of Arafat\u2019s mythologies; Rabin had never done that, and, in fact Rabin had envisioned only going to between 70 and 80 percent.\u201d\n\nNot only did Rabin envision relinquishing no more than 80 percent of the West Bank (without territorial \u201ccompensations\u201d), but his vision of an agreement with the Palestinians was not as far-reaching as what subsequent Israeli prime ministers agreed to, in vain. Two weeks before his assassination, Rabin spelled out in the Knesset his vision of a final agreement. He said that, in the end, there would be a \u201cPalestinian entity\u201d that would be \u201cless than a state.\u201d Rabin also pledged that Israel will \u201cnot return to the June 4, 1967 lines\u201d and that it would retain control over the Jordan Valley \u201cin the broadest meaning of that term.\u201d Rabin also pledged never to release convicted Palestinian murderers.\n\nIn August 2000, Arafat told Dennis Ross that Prime Minister Ehud Barak had gone \u201cfurther\u201d than Yitzhak Rabin would have agreed. \u201cMuch further,\u201d Ross corrected him. At Camp David, Barak agreed to the establishment of a Palestinian state on 92 percent of the West Bank and to Palestinian sovereignty over the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem. Before the Camp David conference, Osama Elbaz (President Hosni Mubarak\u2019s diplomatic adviser) said that the dream of the Palestinians was to obtain 91 percent of the West Bank. Asked by Dennis Ross why, then, they had rejected Barak\u2019s offer of 92 percent, Elbaz candidly replied: \u201cThey raised their expectations.\u201d\n\nPresident Clinton\u2019s \u201cparameters\u201d of December 2000 went even further than Barak\u2019s offer. The Palestinians would have ended-up with between 94 and 96 percent of the West Bank (with a 1 to 3 percent land swap with pre-1967 Israel). East Jerusalem (including the Temple Mount) would have become the capital of a Palestinian state. Israel would have recognized the Palestinian \u201cright of return\u201d while retaining the right to decide which Palestinians would be entitled to Israeli citizenship. Israel accepted the Clinton parameters. Arafat rejected them.\n\nAs Dennis Ross writes: \u201cRabin and Peres had made a historical choice; Arafat made only a tactical move \u2026 Arafat went to Oslo after the first Gulf War not because he made a choice but because he had no choice \u2026 Oslo was his salvation. As such, it represented less a transformation than a transaction.\u201d\n\nMahmoud Abbas is no better. In May 2008, he rejected Ehud Olmert\u2019s offer, which went further than the Clinton parameters. Together with the land swaps, the Palestinians were now getting the totality of the West Bank (and of the Gaza Strip). Olmert also agreed to relinquish the Temple Mount and to accept thousands of Palestinian refugees. But, as Abbas explained to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, that wasn\u2019t good enough because \u201cfive million refugees,\u201d and not only a few thousand, should be allowed to become Israeli citizens.\n\nBenjamin Netanyahu was ready to go much further than Yitzhak Rabin in the current talks with the Palestinians. As opposed to Rabin, Netanyahu accepted the establishment of a Palestinian state. As opposed to Rabin, Netanyahu agreed to free convicted murderers. And, contrary to Rabin, Netanyahu seems to have accepted the principle of land \u201ccompensation.\u201d\nIt is a fact that in the past two decades Israel has made significant concessions, while the Palestinians have made none.\n\nDennis Ross concludes in his book The Missing Peace that the Palestinians should \u201clearn from the past and not simply deny it or reinvent it.\u201d John Kerry would be well advised to learn that lesson, as well.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Kerry&#8217;s conduct makes one wonder where he has been for the past two decades, and whether he ever consulted with US diplomats who learned one or two things about previous botched attempts to reach an agreement between Israel and the PA. When US Secretary of State John Kerry coerced Israel and the Palestinian Authority [&hellip;]","protected":false},"featured_media":9137,"template":"","article-category":[525],"custom-tags":[],"ppma_author":[62],"class_list":["post-9185","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","article-category-publications"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"John Kerry&#8217;s conduct makes one wonder where he has been for the past two decades, and whether he ever consulted with US diplomats who learned one or two things about previous botched attempts to reach an agreement between Israel and the PA. When US Secretary of State John Kerry coerced Israel and the Palestinian Authority [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"kohelet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"359\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"220\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@koheletforum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/\",\"name\":\"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-04-09T19:15:58+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg\",\"width\":359,\"height\":220},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\",\"name\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg\",\"width\":292,\"height\":459,\"caption\":\"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/koheletforum\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet","og_description":"John Kerry&#8217;s conduct makes one wonder where he has been for the past two decades, and whether he ever consulted with US diplomats who learned one or two things about previous botched attempts to reach an agreement between Israel and the PA. When US Secretary of State John Kerry coerced Israel and the Palestinian Authority [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/","og_site_name":"kohelet","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/","og_image":[{"width":359,"height":220,"url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_site":"@koheletforum","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/","name":"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross - kohelet","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg","datePublished":"2014-04-09T19:15:58+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Publication-Place-Holder4.jpg","width":359,"height":220},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/article\/john-kerry-should-have-learned-from-dennis-ross\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"John Kerry should have learned from Dennis Ross"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/","name":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#organization","name":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/\u05dc\u05d5\u05d2\u05d5-\u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea-\u05e2\u05d1\u05e8\u05d9\u05ea-SVG.svg","width":292,"height":459,"caption":"\u05e4\u05d5\u05e8\u05d5\u05dd \u05e7\u05d4\u05dc\u05ea"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Kohelet.org.il\/","https:\/\/x.com\/koheletforum"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article\/9185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/article"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article-category?post=9185"},{"taxonomy":"custom-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/custom-tags?post=9185"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kohelet.org.il\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}