Dennis Ross, a 'favourite of Israel' and tensions inside Obama's mideast team ...

"... With Ross reported to be the preferred go-to contact for the Israeli prime minister, as well as the leverage he wields given his position managing the Obama White House Iran strategy -- of chief importance to Israel, envoy Mitchell is perceived at times to have had his authority in the region undercut.
In one sign of friction, a top aide to Mitchell is expected to depart to take a senior post at USAID. Mara Rudman, who has been serving as Mitchell's chief of staff, is slated to take a top USAID Middle East post, .... Said by friends to be plain spoken and occasionally abrasive, Rudman is described as bumping elbows over the years with Ross, becoming one factor in perceived differences between the Ross and Mitchell camps. 
Ross's role in the Middle East peace portfolio is also said to have expanded in recent weeks, as the Obama administration scrambled -- successfully -- to try to get the Israelis and Palestinians into direct talks and -- without success so far -- to try to avert a crisis over the scheduled Sept. 26 expiration of the West Bank settlement moratorium.
But if there’s tension over lines of authority in Obama’s Middle East team, ultimately it’s Obama who is providing the broad policy direction that both men and their teams are trying to advance, argued former deputy Middle East Quartet envoy Robert Danin.
“The question asked by the [Middle East] parties is, ‘Who is actually formulating the policy? Who is the conceptualizer here?,’” Danin said at the Council on Foreign Relations last week. “And the best I can answer it is: President Obama. I don’t think anyone inside State or the NSC is actually the conceptualizer other than the president himself. He seems to be the one who is driving" the policy.
Danin said that one clear sign that the policy direction is coming from Obama himself was that in Obama’s address to the UN General Assembly last month, Obama said he thought Israel should extend the West Bank settlement freeze, even while Netanyahu had already indicated that he would let the freeze expire....."