Posted at 09:22 AM on 07/22/08

Late last week, Dennis Ross - a former top diplomat on Israeli-Arab affairs under the G.H.W. Bush and Clinton administrations - departed his post with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, where Mr. Ross has been perched for the past several years - to formally endorse Barack Obama for the presidency, become one of Obama's top advisers on the Mideast and, accompany Obama on his current trip to the region.

In a memo sent to WINEP's trustees, its chairman and president stated the parting of ways was done "mutually and amicably" and for the purpose of keeping WINEP's profile as a non-partisan, scholarly think tank.