Former United States ambassador to Israel Dennis Ross called on the United States to take a greater role in the Israel-Palestinian peace process yesterday during a speech in McShain Lounge. He criticized the country for failing to take advantage of several opportunities to push for an end to violence in the region.

“We’re talking about a two-state solution, not a one-state solution,” Ross said. “The strategic focus for [the United States] is that [Hamas] change or they fail.”

A Middle East peace negotiator during the George H.W. Bush and Clinton presidential administrations, Ross said two major dilemmas for the parties involved are that Palestine is economically dependent on Israel and that violence can never lead to reform.

“Eighty percent of the Palestinian economy is dependent on Israel,” Ross said. “[Hamas’] ideology may be one thing, but the reality of governing is another.”

Ross emphasized that the United States has missed three key opportunities in the last 18 months to restart Israel-Palestine peace negotiations, with the death of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, the election of current President Mahmoud Abbas and the Israeli pull-out from Gaza.

“Arafat dies and nothing’s been done with the roadmap [to peace],” Ross said, referring to a multi-step plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace proposed by U.S. President George W. Bush.

“We needed a strategy that was intensive, that was intrusive,” he said.

Ross also said that the United States needs to provide assistance to the Palestinian Authority on a conditional basis. He added that the United States should help Palestine “create an umbrella of new nongovernmental organizations,” such as secular schools to further the aims of nonviolence, peace and stability.

Ross said that the peace process stalled after an agreement was almost reached between the two sides in December 2000. At the time, the United States proposed a 100 percent Israeli pull-out from Gaza, a 97 percent Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, the splitting up of Jerusalem into Palestinian and Israeli sections, the right of refugees to return to their homelands and an internationally led security task force to implement these agreements. Arafat did not agree to some of the stipulations, however, and Ross said both sides “lost faith” in the possibility of peace.

“The difference between the Palestinians and the Israelis [was that] we had one leader who was ready to reach an agreement and one leader who would never be ready,” Ross said. “You develop disbelief. There was a loss of belief, a loss of faith.”

The speech was sponsored by the Program for Jewish Civilization, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and the Kennedy Institute of Ethics.