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The 59-year-old Ross played a lead role in Mideast peace talks during the first Bush and Clinton presidencies.
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WASHINGTON (EJP)---Dennis Ross, the man who worked as President Bill Clinton's envoy to the Middle East, has been choosen by Barack Obama as his top adviser on Israel and Iran.
Ross, a scholar and diplomat who is now active at the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is said to be a leading contender for the post of Secretary of State if Obama wins the presidential election next week.
The 59-year-old Ross played a lead role in Mideast peace talks during the first Bush and Clinton presidencies.
According to JTA, Ross is widely respected in the Jewish community but has been criticized in more conservative circles for what critics say was his failure to hold Yasser Arafat accountable for failing to live up to Palestinian commitments.
Ross has criticized the Bush administration for not being engaged enough in peace talks but also for announcing unrealistic goals for achieving a two-state solution.
He said an Obama administration would play a more hands-on role in Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking -- but also steer clear of any "artificial" timelines.
Ross said Obama views the issue of Iran as an urgent priority because the Bush administration's approach to Iran has failed.
He wrote in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice that Obama “understands that weak sticks and weak carrots -- the current policy -- can't work.”
“We need strong sticks to concentrate the Iranian mind on what they stand to lose, and we need strong carrots, conveyed directly, to show the Iranians they have something to gain by giving up their nuclear weapon pursuit.”
He added that if in the end diplomacy fails, “the fact that we engaged directly and Iran was unwilling to alter its behavior creates a very different context for tougher options. “
When asked by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about Obama’s suggestion that he would be prepared to meet with Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Ross responded:
"You don't talk to Ahmadinejad. First of all, he's not the decision maker. Such a meeting first has to be prepared. What he means is that you have to coordinate with your allies - all your allies. Secondly, it means you have to check whether you can put together an agenda for a lower-level meeting. If it becomes clear that you can't put together such an agenda, then you don't hold a meeting at a high level - the presidential level - because it's not going to lead anywhere. But if you can produce something that you know will lead somewhere, then it's silly not to do that.”