ORLANDO, Fla – Barack Obama offers
“engagement without illusions” when dealing with Iran’s growing nuclear threat
to Israel and the world, renowned Mideast negotiator Dennis Ross, left, told the crowd
at Congregation of Reform Judaism on Sunday, Oct. 19.

Ross was in Orlando to speak to local Jews
about the Democratic presidential candidate’s positions on Israel, the Mideast
and foreign policy in general. In contrast to Republican criticism of Obama’s
stated willingness to talk to Iran’s Muslim fundamentalist government, Ross
believes the senator from Chicago would use dialogue—not concessions—to “change
the dynamic” for the better.

The reason to talk to Iran, said Ross of Obama’s
stance, is to put pressure on the regime, not to give in.

Ross said that when he was with Obama in
Israel this summer, Obama told Israeli leaders he understood the reasons they
saw Iran as “an existential threat.” And Obama, said Ross, demonstrated his
grasp of the seriousness of the fact that a nuclear Iran would “change the
Middle East as we know it” and be “the end of nuclear non-proliferation” in the
region.

The Ross visit was the first of two
political forums—one with an Obama representative and another with a McCain
representative—planned with CRJ as host. As of press time, a McCain speaker had
been invited for an upcoming session, but had not been confirmed. Synagogue
leaders made clear that as a tax-exempt organization, the congregation was
making space available for the community to learn about the issues, but could
not make endorsements.

Rabbi Steven Engel said that there is
“everything right with the Jewish community being involved in the political
process,” and drew laughter when he observed that “we are here because the
candidates recognize that not all Jews live in South Florida.”

Milly Dawson is a local Obama supporter who
is assisting the campaign in organizing and canvassing, and has even opened her
home to Obama volunteers. “Who does Obama ‘pal around’ with?” Dawson asked the
crowd before introducing the nationally known Chicago Jewish businessman and
philanthropist who heads Henry Crown & Co. “It’s the likes of Lester
Crown.”

Crown told his audience that he was
originally introduced to Obama in the late 1980s through Chicago lawyer and
former Federal Communications Commission chairman Newton Minow (best known for
calling television a “vast wasteland” during his FCC tenure in the 1960s).
Minow’s daughter, a professor at Harvard Law School, had recommended Obama to
her father as “the smartest student I’ve ever had in my class,” remembered  Crown.

Crown’s goal on Sunday was to clarify
Obama’s position on Israel, and to describe the candidate’s relationship with
Chicago’s Jewish community before Obama had ever run for office. He said that
in those early days, Obama’s statements in support of Israel were “completely
consistent with what you have heard from him” on the campaign trail, and that
Obama, then as now, believed that “the security of Israel is sacred.”

Crown said that early Jewish friends and
supporters of Obama in Chicago include not only “his first mentor” Minow, but
also Penny Pritzker, whose family owns the Hyatt Hotel chain, and who is
currently Obama’s national finance chair; investment banker Lou Sussman;
prominent jurist Abner Mikva; and Crown’s own son, who is Obama’s Illinois
campaign chair.

Bobby Mandell, prominent Orlando developer
and an Obama supporter since early 2007, drew excitement from the crowd by
announcing former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama that
morning. Mandell then introduced the man with whom he had engaged in an
“insightful” conversation in a Chicago sukkah only the previous week: Dennis
Ross.

Ross, who is also Jewish, served in both
George H.W. Bush’s State Department and as Bill Clinton’s Mideast coordinator.
His recent book, Statecraft, distills
his insights gained from serving in major foreign policy positions under both
presidents. “I’ve been a policy person, I haven’t been a political person,” he
said, but in the current election, he has chosen to support Obama because “the
stakes are too high.”

Ross was highly critical of the current
George W. Bush administration’s handling of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,
and of Bush’s Mideast team. He believes an Obama presidency would “reestablish
the tradition that people who know something about an issue should be able to
work in any administration”—whether Republican or Democratic.

Surveying the current climate that includes
U.S. involvement in two wars, and the problems of terrorism and radical Islam,
Ross said that though the U.S. could not afford to continue to try to act
alone, “if we don’t take a leading position, they can’t be solved.” One
indication of Barack Obama’s seriousness on foreign policy, said Ross, is his
concern about “loose nukes”—nuclear weapons that can find their way into the
hands of rogue states—“from day one” of his Senate career.

Ross accompanied Obama on his visits to the
Mideast and Europe this past summer. Of Obama’s enthusiastic reception by
Berliners, Ross said, “Two hundred thousand people in the heart of Europe were
waving American flags and looking up to an American leader.” With such a
positive connection, he believes that other nations will be “more willing to
accept the objectives that we establish as being important.”

Ross disparaged the current Bush
administration’s performance in the Mideast. “You know you’re in trouble when
the best story you have is Iraq,” he said. Although since Bush’s recent surge
of additional U.S. troops, “the security situation has changed, the fundamental
political situation has not changed.” As for Iran and its increasingly
threatening nuclear program, Ross said that Bush’s policy has “failed.”

Hezbollah in Lebanon currently has 40,000
rockets pointed at Israel and has gained formal veto power over the Lebanese
government, while Hamas in Gaza has 2,000 rockets, said Ross. Over the last
eight years of the Bush administration, “we stood on the sidelines everywhere
in the Middle East except Iraq. … When we’re on the sidelines, somebody else is
on the playing field.” When the peoples of the Mideast have “no sense of
possibility, no sense of hope, the Islamists gain.”

Israel doesn’t want to use force on Iran,
said Ross, but will do so if its survival depends on it. He described the
Israeli preference as one that presented Iran with a “series of consequences.”
He said that Obama asked Israeli leaders this summer, “How do we rachet up the
pressure” on Iran, then took their ideas to the Europeans.

Ross said that
currently Iran doesn’t have to choose between economic prosperity and nuclear
weapons. There are five international companies that “ensure” business going
into and out of Iran, he said. Persuading these companies to stop ensuring
business with Iran would have “a major effect on commerce.” Maybe the French
and Germans had such an idea before they spoke with Obama, but based on all his
recent contact with their negotiators, Ross doesn’t think so. Although he
quotes Obama as telling them that “we have only one president at a time,” he
credits the senator with interesting the Europeans in pursuing such a strategy.

After his 25 years of experience working
intimately with heads of state, Ross said that he saw “a unique talent” in
Obama. “I saw somebody who could take every meeting and turn it to the agenda
he had,” and someone who could “build relationships”—both vital skills for a
successful presidency, he said.

While Ross wouldn’t speculate on whom Obama
might name to his cabinet, he said that Obama “surrounds himself with very
thoughtful people … and not everybody who thinks the same.” Ross decried the
current Bush administration’s “group think” by saying “if there was a different
point of view the president never knew it.”

Of Obama he said, “I was struck by the
leadership model he creates—everyone knows they’re going to have their say,”
and Obama also “asks hard questions of himself.” And, said Ross, Obama will
appoint people who know “not only how to think through policies, but to take
action.”

A questioner in the audience wanted to know
how, with Obama building close ties with European countries who don’t always
hold pro-Israel views, the U.S. would make sure that negotiation didn’t end up
penalizing Israel. Collegiality, said Ross, works by “seriously taking into
account their views, then explaining” that the U.S. position may differ. “At
least they understand why we’re doing what we’re doing.”

Asked by the Heritage about a possible position in an Obama administration, Ross
said that should he be asked, he would “take it seriously.”

On the final status of Jerusalem, Ross said
that Obama’s position had not changed, despite Republican assertions to the
contrary. McCain supporters have charged that Obama’s passionate assertion at
an AIPAC conference earlier this year that Jerusalem remain the undivided
Israeli capital was at odds with the later statement that the city’s status was
open to negotiation. Obama, said Ross, believes that Jerusalem should be the
undivided capital of Israel, but leaves final status negotiations up to the
Israelis and Palestinians themselves.

 In his role as an Obama advisor, Ross said
that he and Obama mainly discuss “what’s going on and why it’s going on”
between Israelis and Palestinians, especially the historical context. But when
Ross was with Obama in Israel, the Israeli leaders he met were impressed with
Obama’s “intuitive” grasp of detail and strategic concerns. “That’s not because
of me, that’s because of him,” said Ross.

Lyne Payne is Associate Editor at the
Heritage Florida Jewish News