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By Rebekah Lynn

Daily Bruin Contributor

The former U.S. Ambassador to the Middle East issued a challenge to UCLA sociology students on Monday.

After sharing the intricacies and unique challenges of negotiating peace in the Middle East, veteran diplomat and UCLA alumnus Dennis Ross said:

“You now have the background, the violence continues, and I have resigned as diplomat. What would you do if you had the responsibility of talking to the two sides right now?”

This prompt led to a lively discussion in Sociology 195C: “Voices of Peace: Perspectives on Confrontation and Reconciliation in the Arab-Israeli Conflict,” a class that Ross visited on Monday.

Ross maintained a balanced approach in a class composed of students with views on both sides of the ongoing conflict.

He spoke later in the evening at the Hillel Jewish Student Center. A passionate crowd consisting of mainly community members with a handful of students engaged in animated arguments and discussions while several groups distributed literature at the entrance.

“With the media, we don’t always get a complete picture. To get a perspective directly from someone who was there in person is so powerful.” said Rachel Braun, first-year undeclared student.

According to Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, whose sociology class hosted Ross, the Middle East conflict has a direct impact on many UCLA students.

“The Middle East conflict affects the student body in two ways. First, it expresses itself through intergroup tensions. Secondly, it is used by some as an organizational method to divide the campus, and this grows a life of its own,” he said.

Seidler-Feller said students can combat this divisive tension by truly listening to each other and engaging in individual exchanges with students who hold divergent opinions.

It was toward this end that the Voices of Peace class was established.

“The goal was to create an environment where students with divergent opinions can exchange ideas freely and to offer a critical perspective on the peace process in an academic setting.”

Ross offered a first-person perspective, and he listened to students’ ideas, helping them to flesh out the difficulties and strengths of each idea.

“Diplomacy is not the art of pursuing the impossible, it is the art of pursuing the attainable.” Ross said.

His message focused on the reality that the Arab and Jewish communities are neighbors. Instead of being stuck on ideological divides, negotiators must focus on practical solutions to ensure peace, according to Ross. He also stressed a complete approach that includes a dialogue between political leaders and the people. He highlighted the importance of socializing peace, educating and using the media to communicate positively with the people.

“You cannot try to make peace at the table and war on the street,” he said.

While he considers this a difficult time to make peace, Ross said he remains basically optimistic. He said the primary lesson he has learned in his 12 years of diplomacy is that there is no alternative to the pursuit of peace.

“Conflict causes perpetual pain, perpetual struggle, and perpetual victims. That is not sustainable to anyone,” Ross said.

He recently resigned from his post as ambassador, but remains committed to the peace process. He plans to write extensively about his experiences.

Ross said his goal is to share his knowledge and to affect the climate in which the new negotiators make decisions. When asked by students if his resignation was due to the new U.S. administration, he said he resigned before the election, and would have resigned regardless of who had won the presidential race.

Ross was an undergraduate at UCLA as well as a UCLA graduate student of foreign policy. His doctoral dissertation was on Soviet decision making. He has received the presidential medal for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service and has been a UCLA alumnus of the year.

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