Dennis Ross Quotations

Successful diplomacy is an alignment of objectives and means.

If there were an election today, Netanyahu would win. Yet, his standing in the polls is also a reflection of the weakness of Ehud Olmert, the current prime minister - who stands at 2 percent in a recent poll - and the enduring weaknesses of the Labor Party.

You don't have any communication between the Israelis and the Iranians. You have all sorts of local triggers for conflict. Having countries act on a hair trigger - where they can't afford to be second to strike - the potential for a miscalculation or a nuclear war through inadvertence is simply too high.

Force is not inevitable. Diplomacy is still the desired means. Pressure is an element of the means.

It is my Middle Eastern hat and my attachment to Israel that ultimately inspires my support for Obama. I know he understands that neither Israel nor America can afford four more years of Iran and the radical Islamists gaining strategic leverage in the Middle East.

I am the Counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

It has been an honor to work in the Obama Administration and to serve this President, particularly during a period of unprecedented change in the broader Middle East. Obviously, there is still work to do but I promised my wife I would return to government for only two years and we both agreed it is time to act on my promise.

There are consequences if you act militarily, and there's big consequences if you don't act.

I wouldn't discount the possibility that the Israelis would act if they came to the conclusion that basically the world was prepared to live with Iran with nuclear weapons. They certainly have the capability by themselves to set back the Iranian nuclear program.

Security is something that serves Israeli interests and Palestinian interests. You have a common threat and you have a common enemy and it's important to deal with that as partners.

Many Europeans are concerned that stronger sanctions are a slippery slope toward war unless the U.S. is at the table.

Arafat's whole life has been governed by struggle and a cause. Everything he has done as leader of the Palestinians is to always leave his options open, never close a door.

I can give substantive advice to the administration, the president's campaign, or any campaign that would ask for it. And, of course, when I speak I can talk about my views on policy and I have been supportive of the president's policy on leading foreign-policy issues.

Israel was seen as having demonstrated unmistakably it wanted peace, and the reason it wasn't available, achievable was because Arafat wouldn't accept it.

Overwhelmingly, Israel's political and military establishment want the rest of the world to act diplomatically or otherwise to stop Iran. But if that doesn't happen, then the impulse toward the use of force will become quite strong.

We can't have a failure in Iraq, but we also can't be there for the next 10 years because if we are, it's going to become, I think, a failure in and of itself.

There is no question that Jordan is strongly committed to the peace process and will always be supportive of any effort to try to find ways to put things back on track,

We're hopeful that we'll see an agreement very soon.

With the right kind of spirit, with the right kind of determination, if the will is there and there is a genuine effort to negotiate in good faith, I believe the parties are not being too ambitious. I believe it is possible.

We had a very good discussion, and I think we are making headway. Issues are being dealt with seriously, intensively and comprehensively in a way that I think gives us a chance to put the process back on track.

make the decision on how to resume with the final procedures.

My focus right now is meeting with each side ... to see what kind of conclusions they have drawn about the insights that developed at Camp David, and then we'll see if there are ways to overcome the differences,

On the Israeli side there is real questioning, you do not see any signs of dilemma on the other side.

If we didn't feel there was potential, we wouldn't be working this way. We wouldn't be thinking about the possibility of moving to a summit.

If you are embracing violence, if you insist on maintaining an independent militia, if you reject the idea of coexistence, you are not a partner and we will not deal with you, ... The point is to be very clear; don't try to be overly subtle on this one.

What I have found is that there is a will -- what we have to find is the way.

I think it's always important when you're approaching Middle East peace never to set your hopes too low.

I think we've seen over the course of the last year is that Chairman Arafat may well be committed to wanting to live in peace with Israel, but his own capacity at this stage to reach a permanent agreement is at least something that has to be questioned.

It has been clear from the guidance I had in coming out here that both ... (Secretary of State Madeleine Albright) and the president believe that it is important to bring this process to a conclusion. But the president and the secretary will make a decision on when it is appropriate to do so.

Our objective is have the agreement implemented. Both sides have obligations and responsibilities, and we expect both sides to carry out those responsibilities and obligations.

My purpose right now is to have a chance to talk to the leaders to see what can be done to energize the process.

That's the new struggle of our time, and we have to frame it that way to understand what we're contending with and why it's so important for us not to fail.

We have been working and there will be a meeting tonight between the prime minister and the chairman at Erez,

The problem is going to be within a month or two after disengagement there will be two completely different expectations as to what comes next.

When one thinks about religion, one should think about peace.

We're not looking for meetings as an end in themselves. We're looking for results.

The president ... wants me to focus on the security questions and I will be doing that,

What's important is not meetings for their own sake but results ... that will have a consequence on the security environment.

We have a beginning. It's a step in the right direction. Now we have to see results.

To have peace in the Middle East, we are going to have to see that religion is a source of peace.

What the Bush administration needs to do is ... make their own assessment exactly what the landscape is. What's possible, what's meaningful. And if they focus that way, that will inevitably take some time.

We are certainly at a very delicate moment where there is also a great deal of potential.

Both men realize there is no military solution to the problem.

At the end of the day, every administration does what it needs to do, but obviously they will have to pay attention to this.

At this moment, the differences are too difficult to overcome, ... We need more time to work them out.

Do we have a lot of work to be done? Yes. Are we committed to what we can do to help the parties overcome these difficulties? Yes. Based on the discussions I have had, I see the potential for progress.

They agreed that in addition to the negotiations that have resumed on the interim committees that they should see this kind of resumption of contacts on all levels between the two sides, including between the leaders.

They acquire a kind of a momentum and we have to blunt that. I would like to see the president talk much more about those kinds of stakes because this is a way to explain what we're contending with, what we're fighting.

The work is going very well, and ... I hope and expect that we will conclude an agreement shortly thereafter.

These cards have not exactly given Syria a very strong hand, ... The more the regime has tried to play the cards, the weaker they've become.

President Clinton made it clear he is prepared to get them together again if he is satisfied there's a readiness to make decisions.

Our concepts are still basically the same, but we have made some modifications and that's what I've been going over with the leaders today,

Not withstanding the unique confluence of circumstances, he (Arafat) was not able to take advantage of that opportunity,

And that's going to create a stalemate between the two sides unless we build a bridge to the future in advance of that stalemate.

a very good meeting in which we were able to review a wide range of security issues and security concerns.

AIPAC is taking the public statements seriously. They're alarmed by a nuclear capability, and the administration appears to be adopting an approach that isn't changing Iranian behavior.

This is a process that has been going on for a long time. The ideas were originally conveyed in the middle of January. At some point it has to come to a conclusion.

This has been a good start and the process has been set in motion. We have to see the process produce results and we're working to that end.

This has been a good day for overcoming differences.

It's a reminder that this is a very difficult time,

The nuclear weapons would deter us from attacking them, and they see that the weapons also give them great leverage.

It looks as if the world sees Arafat as someone who ended his life as someone who was determined to prevent peace or was against it,

It may give each of them an excuse to do something, ... They will not respond to each other. That much is very clear.

It's in Syria's interest to remove any cloud, any stigma, any questioning about where it's coming from and what it's doing,

They conducted this meeting in a spirit of partnership, recognizing that they have common interests and common stakes. They each felt, and each said, that it was a new beginning.

I need to go back to report to the president and secretary of state. The process has to be brought to conclusion at some point soon.

If you have differences, the place to deal with differences is at the table, not on the streets, ... There is no place for violence in this process.

I'll have a chance within the next couple of days...to hear back from them,

I really feel there's a need much more for a third party to build bridges between the two sides before it's too late,

In these countries there still is a climate that certainly makes it possible and doesn't make it illegitimate to embrace this ideology.

Clearly, calming the environment is something that is important for everybody, for both sides. But they're also working to see if they can overcome their differences.

And indeed they agreed that the leaders themselves should meet on a regular basis.

The meeting will try to overcome obstacles and try to reach an accord over redeployment in Hebron,