Ross

Ross has unveiled the dramatic and secretive nature of that peace process in his new book, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace. He will discuss the book during a lecture on Oct. 20 at 2 p.m. in the auditorium at Willkie Residence Center on the campus of Indiana University Bloomington. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Ross' visit to Bloomington is presented by the Robert A. and Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Program and co-sponsored by the IU departments of Political Science and History.

Ross was the nation's point man on the Middle East peace process in the presidential administrations of George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. He was instrumental in helping Israelis and Palestinians reach the 1995 Interim Agreement. He also successfully brokered the Hebron Accord in 1997, facilitated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty and worked to bring Israel and Syria together.

In his book, which was published in August, Ross recounts the efforts he and others made to bring peace to the troubled region, from the time he joined the U. S. Department of State in 1988 to the final days of the Clinton administration when negotiations collapsed. He discusses the summits at Madrid, Oslo, Geneva and Camp David, the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, and the personalities at the heart of the talks, including Rabin, Clinton, Benjamin Netanyahu, Shimon Peres, Yasir Arafat and Hafez al-Asad. He also explains the central issues in the struggle for peace.

A scholar and diplomat with more than two decades of experience in Soviet and Middle East policy, Ross worked closely with secretaries of state James Baker, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright. He is a frequent contributor to the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times and New York Times.