DENNIS ROSS' NEW BOOK

DENNIS ROSS, THE CHIEF U.S. NEGOTIATOR FOR PRESIDENT'S BUSH (41) AND CLINTON HAS WRITTEN A NEW BOOK ON THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE NEGOTIATIONS. ALTHOUGH HE NOT SO NEATLY SIDE STEPS HIS OWN BLAME FOR THE FAILURE THAT WAS THE OSLO PROCESS, HE DOES CORRECTLY POINT ONE OF HIS FINGERS AT ARAFAT:

ARAFAT'S FAULT
In retrospect, Ross admits the cardinal sin of the Clinton administration's attitude toward the accords. He acknowledges that the White House and the State Department did nothing to hold Yasser Arafat and the rest of his merry band of Palestinian Authority henchmen accountable as they used their newfound power. Ross, the supposed arbiter of peace, sanctioned official whitewashes of the P.A. as it built a corrupt dictatorship intent on fomenting hatred of Israel and carrying on a terror war against its existence, rather than fostering peace.

And with the passage of time and the complete collapse of his carefully orchestrated negotiations into the horror of Arafat's blood-spattered intifada, Ross now sees Arafat as the prime obstacle to peace. In interviews and speeches conducted to promote the book, Ross is prepared to concede that Arafat will have to go before peace can arrive.

On this point, Ross' book advances the debate on the demise of Oslo. He refutes the claims put forward by Arafat and his apologists that the offer laid on the table by Israel during the July 2000 Camp David summit was of no value. Ross sets forward the extraordinary concessions made by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak that would have given the Palestinians a viable state with a capital in Jerusalem.

At least on this point, Ross is clear: Arafat rejected peace and statehood, and instead chose war. The peace was there to be had. The problem was, Arafat didn't want it.