In the second episode of the Fathom series ‘Those who tried: Conversations with the Peace Processors’, Ambassador Dennis Ross recalls his time as a negotiator at the very heart of the process which culminated in Camp David 2000 and, ultimately, in the Clinton Parameters. Ross assesses the importance of Arafat to the eventual failure of the process, and the problem more broadly whereby each party to the conflict affords ‘mutual recognition of “the other” as a fact, but not through the lens of legitimacy.’ Ross also looks forward, to consider the future of a post-Hamas Gaza.
A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, Ross played a leading role in shaping US involvement in the Middle East peace process, dealing directly with the parties as the US point man on the peace process in both the George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton administrations. He served two and half years as special assistant to President Obama and as National Security Council senior director for the Central Region, spending the first six months of the administration as the special advisor on Iran to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Episode One of the series, with Elliot Abrams, can be watched here.
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