Dennis Ross, a former special assistant to President Barack Obama, is the counselor and William Davidson Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute.
David Makovsky is the Ziegler Distinguished Fellow at The Washington Institute and director of the Koret Project on Arab-Israel Relations.
Articles & Testimony
Regional governments are going to reach out to Israel anyway, so why not take advantage of this activity to help the Palestinians and encourage Jerusalem toward constructive moves?
Many critics took the narrow view that President Biden’s recent trip failed to secure any announced increase in oil production or make any progress between Israelis and Palestinians. However, critics missed that Biden sees the region differently. In speaking to Arab leaders of nine states in Jedda, he said, “We will operate in the context of the Middle East as it is today: a region more united than it has been in years...Increasingly, the world is seeing the Mideast through the lens of opening and opportunity.” The new reality in the region—providing economic cooperation between Arabs and Israel—means Biden understood there is a new paradigm for peace-making...