Video: Exclusive interview with Ambassador Dore Gold

[Valin]

Hot Air:

Ed Morrissey

6/20/13

 

JERUSALEM Earlier today, the Tomorrow 2013 Presidential Conference arranged an interview with one of the most knowledgeable men on regional conflicts, multilateral diplomacy, and the long history undergirding both, Ambassador Dore Gold. Now at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Gold provides support for public officials navigating the rocky shoals of foreign and domestic policy, and educates the general public as well. I met Ambassador Gold at his office to discuss the Presidential Conference, the conflict in Syria, and the perhaps intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well:

 

 

Ambassador Gold believes that the humanitarian crisis in Syria, as well as strategic interests there, require Western intervention. It would be a disaster, he explains, for Syria and Iran to come out victorious in the current confrontation. Irans hegemonial ambitions go well beyond Syria, but without Syria they would be nearly impossible to fulfill. They now have boots on the ground in the Syrian War, shooting Sunni Arabs, as well as their long-term backing of Hezbollah and their entry into the conflict. Clearly, they desperately want to keep Assad in power.

 

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That brought us to the conflict closer to home for Israel. Ambassador Gold largely dismisses the value of Western intervention, telling me, The only ones who can solve this problem are the parties themselves. You cant want peace more than the parties themselves. The pact with Egypt was realized not because of American diplomacy but because Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat wanted to head off Western dictates. The treaty with Jordan was arranged directly.

 

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