Palestine

Financial Express (4/27) speaks with Parag Khanna about the decline of US influence
The Boston Globe (4/27) quotes Flynt Leverett on the dangerous alliances oil producers and despots.
The Tory Conservative (4/27) features Afshin Molavi's book, Persian Pilgrimages.
MWC News (4/25) discusses prospects for a Palestinian state with Ghaith al-Omari.
The Jewish Week (4/23) asks Daniel Levy about the Presidential candidates' Middle East Policies.

In debates surrounding U.S.-Israeli relations, the role of certain pro-Israel political action committees has been heavily contested. While for some they represent the true interests of both America and Israel, New America's Daniel Levy is skeptical and instead thinks their agenda leaves both countries worse off. In an April 16th Huffington Post article, he announced J Street, a new political action committee for Americans who think to America's best interests are served by a just, negotiated two-state solution and an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The greater Middle East contains only six percent of the world's population but can keep the United States distracted from the bigger strategic issues: making globalization, the rise of Asia, and the American economy stable and sustainable, for instance. Writing in the American Prospect, Daniel Levy lays out a regional to-do list for the next president of the United States.

By Daniel Levy, New America Foundation

The American Prospect | April 2008

Listen carefully when a new president is inaugurated next January for the sigh of relief coming from most of those Middle Easterners whom President Bush embraced as allies. Conversely, Bush’s rivals in the region are likely to tune in to the occasion in a disgruntled mood. For them the Bush years have been good for business. The menu of grievances on which they’ve fed has become a veritable feast. Opposition to American designs in the region -- deployed with different emphases and with different goals by al-Qaeda, Iran, Hamas, Syria, and Hezbollah, to name but a few -- has been an easy sell and has won countless new adherents.

On the five year anniversary of the latest war in Iraq, Juan Cole and Steve Clemons debate and discuss the status quo and future of this strategic region. Check it out below. From Bloggingheads.tv:

Condoleezza Rice's 13th trip to the Middle East is over and the situation is not getting better. Without a significant strategic shift, the Annapolis Process will die a slow death. New America's Daniel Levy, writing in The Guardian, argues that there is still time to salvage this initiative, but only if the United States changes tack or the Quartet and Arab states get off the sidelines.

The Bush administration categorizes Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip. President Bush wants an Israeli-Palestinian deal inked by the time he leaves office. Something has to give.

Daniel Levy, director of the New America Foundation's Middle East Policy Initiative, says former Mossad Chief Efraim Halevy's recent interview with Laura Rozen indicates that at least some influential Israelis are willing to start cracking the door to Hamas, starting with popping the myth that the movement is equivalent to al-Qaeda or controlled by Tehran.