Obama: I Get My Mideast Advice From Dennis Ross

[Purveyor]

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) told a group of Jewish communal lay leaders that he is receiving advice on Middle East issues from Dennis Ross.

The Democratic presidential hopeful made the disclosure during a closed meeting in New York with
25 Jewish leaders, according to a Jewish organizational source familiar with what was said at the gathering. It comes, as the senator's campaign is making a concerted effort to reach out to the Jewish community across the country.

Obama is popular with many key Jewish figures in Illinois. But, observers say, a few flaps have left some hawkish Jewish Democrats with questions about the senator. Earlier this year, Obama told an Iowa audience that "nobody suffers more" than the Palestinians in the Middle East. That drew sharp questions from pro-Israel groups, but Obama later pointed critics to the whole quote, in which he principally blamed the Palestinian leadership for its people's suffering. He also raised eyebrows at a recent debate when he said he would meet the leaders of pariah states like Syria and Iran within his first year of office.

The association with Ross could help Obama solve a key dilemma: how to win the confidence of hawkish pro-Israel donors without alienating his anti-war base.

---EOE---

http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070824rossobama.html

[Colobo]

1. Obama is a great strategist. Pragmatism at its best.

[Luminous Animal]

6. Ross should be run out of government

"Shouldn't there be a rule or a law that says if you fuck things up this badly, you shouldn't be considered an "expert"?" -- Tim Robbins

Here's Dennis on Saddam prior to the invasion of Iraq...

He has chemical and biological weapons now. He wants nuclear weapons, as a shield to protect him in a new war," Ross said. "His policy has been incredibly aggressive for more than twenty years. In 1980 he invaded Iran. In 1990 he invaded Kuwait. There is no reasonable basis to expect that he will refrain from new aggression against his neighbors if he acquires nuclear weapons. After eight and a half years of war with Iran most analysts said he would be crazy to start a new war in Kuwait--but he did just that."

Ross said that Saddam is on the verge of a nuclear capability and that in the current post-9-11 climate of terrorist attacks on the United States and its citizens abroad that these would be used if Saddam is not disarmed quickly. "Saddam Hussein has been singularly immune from the effects of deterrence by the threat of U.S. force. On the contrary, Saddam sees nuclear weapons as his deterrence against the United States to permit him to renew attacks on his targets in the region."

[sandnsea]

7. And yet Obama got it right anyway

Would you prefer he never listen to anybody he disagrees with - like Bush does?

[Luminous Animal]

10. Where does Obama admit that he disagrees with Ross?

Ross: wrong in so many ways.

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/01/dennis_rosss_mythology.html

http://time-blog.com/middle_east/2007/02/dennis_rosss_mythology_4.html

[sandnsea]

16. When he opposed the IWR

for starters.

And let's not forget that Ross supported Obama's position on speaking to rogue nations, and going after terrorist groups in Pakistan.

And I don't see supporting Fatah and reform in Palestine as a horror either.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1068

As with most things, it takes a variety of points of view to come to the right conclusions. Ross is just one more.

[Peregrine Took]

14. Or opportunism.

[MethuenProgressive]

2. "Ross is a Foreign Affairs Analyst for the Fox News Channel" -Wiki

According to Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Ross

[NYCGirl]

5. Don't forget this:

Dennis B. Ross is an American author and political figure who served as the director for policy planning in the State Department under President George H.W. Bush and special Middle East coordinator under President Bill Clinton. The envoy and chief negotiator under both Republican and Democratic presidents, Ross was integral in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process during his tenure.

For more than twelve years, Ross played a leading role in shaping U.S. involvement in the Middle East peace process and in dealing directly with the negotiations. Ross was responsible in both the G.H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations for exploring ways to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As an architect of the peace process, he helped the Israelis and Palestinians in reaching the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and brokered the Protocol Concerning the Redeployment in Hebron in 1997. He facilitated the Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace and also worked on talks between Israel and Syria.

[AnnieBW]

3. He SHOULD be getting it from Juan Cole

He's the smartest guy on Middle Eastern affairs that I've ever come across.

[Peregrine Took]

15. Brilliant!

[partylessinOhio]

4. This is very bad news. BO should be reminded that he is running for prez

of US not Israel.

:thumbsdown:

[sufrommich]

17. He also met with a bunch of Cuban Americans

in Miami recently(no doubt with advisors in tow).He needs to be reminded that that he's running for the president of the U.S., not Cuba!!:eyes:

[Jim Sagle]

8. Ruh roh! Obama's PROSEMITIC!!!!!! Whadda we gonna doooo????

:scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared::scared: ;-)

[janx]

9. ...

:rofl:

[aquart]

11. Go, Jim!

[Jim Sagle]

12. It all gets so tiresome, doesn't it?

[janx]

13. It

"...ain't nothin but s**t!"

:rofl:

[aquart]

18. Yah.

Our candidates are an embarrassment of riches. Any one of them can be trusted with the Supreme Court, just to begin with.

[wyldwolf]

19. no recs from the Obama crew?

[Jim Sagle]

20. The Obama crew, I suspect, are down with this.

This crowd smells more like the Ron Paul crew.