Everyone in Washington has an opinion of McGurk, the controversial Blob star, president whisperer, and veteran foreign policy player. But is he a cunning opportunist or simply the best diplomat in a town filled with them?

A conversation with Dennis Ross, the chief U.S. negotiator in the 2000 peace talks, about why they fell apart, how Israelis came to believe that the Palestinian problem could be managed, and how Oct. 7 exploded that fiction.