Dermer

By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on August 20th, 2010
Photo by AFP
I have recently returned from Afghanistan, but without successfully shaking the Arab-Israeli conflict from my mind. 
 
That's because in Kabul I ran into none other than retired US Army Colonel PJ Dermer, whom I've known since his defence attaché days at the US Embassy in Tel Aviv. 
 
Colonel Dermer spent the bulk of his 30-year career in the Middle East, as a regional specialist tackling some of the most challenging issues. You can read more about him from this earlier blog post.
By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on April 12th, 2010
AFP photo

A friend I knew from my Washington days has given me permission to share a pessimistic email he recently sent me. 

A bit about the writer: Colonel Dermer, or “P.J.” as I know him, recently retired from the US Army. His background and military career was quite unusual, and he has a remarkable bluntness, which is naturally why I took a liking to him. He spent over 30 years in the Army and was thrust into a myriad of US-Mideast issues, almost always in an operational capacity.

PJ filled several roles at various US embassies, including the impossible job of working between the Israeli and Palestinian security services during the George W Bush years.