Former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross recently acknowledged that the Palestinian Authority “presides over an educational system that promotes incitement, not education.”
That’s the same Dennis Ross who for years was assuring Israel that the PA would stop promoting incitement in its educational system.
Maybe it’s time for Israel to stop taking Ross’s advice.
Back in 1988, Ross was one of the architects of the very first U.S. recognition of the PLO, just as the newly-elected George H.W. Bush was about to take office as president. According to the New York Times, Ross had become convinced that Yasser Arafat was becoming moderate. The old terrorist was changing his ways, Ross insisted; he was ready to give up violence and hatred and incitement.
President Bush trusted Ross’s judgment. For eighteen months, Bush maintained friendly contacts with the PLO, all the time waiting for the proof that Ross had promised, the proof of the “new Arafat.” For eighteen months, the Bush Administration made excuses every time Arafat made some “jihad” speech and every time Arafat claimed he wasn’t to blame for some terrorist attack.
Finally, in May 1990, Bush couldn’t take it any longer. Ross’s promises about the “moderate” Arafat crumbled as a PLO member-organization was caught trying to carry out a massacre on the Tel Aviv beachfront. The U.S. ended its relationship with Arafat.
Just four years later, Ross resumed his effort to demonstrate that Arafat had really changed, and would finally give up terrorism and incitement. Israel and the PLO signed the Oslo accords, and Ross became an outspoken public defender of the new Palestinian Authority, which was put in charge of governing the parts of Judea-Samaria where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside.
Ross and his State Department colleagues insisted that Arafat could be trusted to abide by the new accords. The Oslo II agreement (Article XXII) specifically required the PA to “abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda.”
So what happened when monitoring groups, such as Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI, exposed the PA’s ongoing anti-Jewish incitement and hostile propaganda?
Ross and the State Department made excuses: We haven’t finished translating those documents. Or, the PA has to say these things to appease the Palestinian public. Or, Israelis say mean things, too.
It continued that way, year after year. No wonder so many Israelis lost faith in Ross’s “peace process.” Israelis understood that the only hope for a genuine and durable peace in the region is if the PA would use its media and schools to promote peace and coexistence, and reject hatred and violence.
So it went on like that for three decades. Three decades of the PA continuing to teach children to hate and kill Jews. Three decades of current and former State Department officials ignoring or excusing PA incitement.
Not once during his years as a U.S. official did Dennis Ross publicly denounce the PA’s hatred. Not once did he call for a halt, or even a reduction, in U.S. aid to the PA. Not once did he threaten any consequences for the PA’s anti-peace behavior.
And now, in a panel discussion at the Council on Foreign Relations on July 16, Ross has belatedly admitted that the PA still “presides over an educational system that promotes incitement, not education.”
Yet, incredibly, Ross is still demanding that Israel agree to create a Palestinian Arab state. In that Council on Foreign Relations panel, he assured Israel that one of the Arab gulf kingdoms could step in and change the PA educational system, so that the “State of Palestine” would be friendly and peaceful. Yeah, right.
All of this is painfully reminiscent of how Ross lied to Israel about Hamas and the terror tunnels. In an op-ed in the Washington Post in 2014, Ross admitted that he pressured Israel to let Hamas import concrete into Gaza. Ross assured the Israelis that the concrete would be used to build houses. Israel was afraid it would be used to build terror tunnels. Under Ross’s pressure, the Israelis gave in, despite the danger. And look what a price they paid.
Now Ross admits that the PA has been promoting hatred and incitement all these years, despite his assurances. He wants Israel to gamble again and let the Palestinian Arabs have a state now. Imagine what a terrible price the Israelis will pay if they make the mistake of listening to him again.
