Ambassador Dennis Ross is counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Prior to returning to the Institute in 2011, he served two years as special assistant to President Obama and National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, and a year as special advisor to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. For more than 12 years, Ambassador Ross played a leading role in shaping US involvement in the Middle East peace process and dealing directly with the parties in negotiations. Ambassador Ross was point man on the peace process in both the George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations, palyed a leading role in assisting Israelis and Palestinians to reach the 1995 Interim Agreement; he also successfully brokered the 1997 Hebron Accord, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty, and intensively worked to bring Israel and Syria together.

David Makovsky is the Ziegler distinguished fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process. Makovsky also worked in the Office of the US Secretary of State between 2013-4, serving as a Senior Advisor to the Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations.