The UO and Gaza

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, Dennis Ross, the American face most visible throughout the so-called “peace process” mediating the Israeli-Palestinian divide, widely viewed as “Israel’s lawyer,” appeared at the University of Oregon, sponsored by three Jewish and no Palestinian or Arab organizations.

This is 12 years after his earlier UO appearance and 26 years since the negotiations were launched based on the 1993 Oslo Accords, a Bantustan model replicating Apartheid South Africa.

The 1991 Madrid proposal envisioning two peoples sharing the land “as neighbors and equals” drafted by the Palestinian delegation guided by international attorney Francis Boyle was betrayed by Yasser Arafat at Oslo, although Boyle had presciently warned against Israel’s proposal.

Predictably, Israel has doubled down on land theft and oppression of colonized Palestinians, including its chokehold on Gaza and periodic massacres to “mow the lawn.”

Palestinian resistance to assert its internationally recognized human rights and preserve its dignity are denigrated as “terrorism.”

Columbia University’s famed Palestinian scholar Edward Said named Ross an “administration flack.” Peace is no closer than it was when the U.S. intruded. Justice and equality are equally distant hopes.

In my field of behavioral research, an intervention tested and found ineffective receives neither further funding nor public trust.

Jack Dresser

Springfield