The Man With The Plan

Where is the secret to peace in the Middle East? It's not in some high ideal or lofty principle. It's not in an undrawn line in the dry hills of East Jerusalem. It's not even in the hearts or minds of the Israeli and Palestinian leaders meeting since July 11 under the auspices of President Clinton at Camp David in Maryland's secluded Catoctin Mountains. The secret to peace in the Middle East is easy to find--it's scribbled on the loose-leaf paper of a black, flexible-plastic three-ring binder, just like the kind you used in high school. The binder belongs to Dennis Ross.

For almost 12 years, Ross has been writing notes and ideas on the Middle East into that binder, first as head of the policy-planning staff in the Bush Administration's State Department and for the past eight years as the Clinton Administration's special Middle East coordinator. It contains secrets that he and maybe one or two other people know, things like confidential Israeli and Palestinian negotiating positions, areas where they might concede, areas where they swear they won't. Occasionally he drafts handwritten memos in it to the Secretary of State or the President. In that binder are ideas that show the way to peace.

The binder and its owner are at the center of the action this week as President Clinton attempts to clinch a deal on peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The summit is a high-stakes attempt by the departing American President to force a "full, fair and final" settlement of such explosive issues as the return of Palestinian refugees, boundaries of a Palestinian state and control of Jerusalem--in short, all the issues dividing the two sides. Along the arbored paths of Camp David, over meals of steak and salmon or in their private cabins, every foreign policy heavyweight in the Administration, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, is hammering on those issues with the delegations of Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. Failure is a very real possibility, and Ross, who will have to pick up the pieces, is keenly aware of it. But the U.S.'s top Middle East negotiator continues to search--in the words of his former boss Warren Christopher--for "glimmers of light...where most people can't see them."

Just to have brought the sides this close is an achievement. Twelve years ago, when Ross started working for Bush, Arafat was persona non grata to the U.S., a man whose sworn aim was to destroy Israel. Over the years, much of the progress was made by the parties themselves. The Oslo accords, reached in 1993 by Israel and the Palestinians, were achieved without the help of the U.S. But at key moments, especially in the past six months, the U.S. has brought agreement where none could be found by the sides alone. Every President and Secretary of State and foreign leader involved in the negotiations for more than a decade has had reason to turn to Ross and ask him for his thoughts. This week was no exception. Turning to him in a late-afternoon meeting, Clinton said, "Dennis, can you draft us something on this over dinner?" Ross, used to the routine, leaned toward an aide and said, smiling, "That's O.K., we missed lunch too."