On a warm day in late December, two dovish Washington groups, the American Task Force on Palestine and the Foundation for Middle East Peace, hosted a panel discussion at a historic mansion on 18th Street NW. The topic on the table was "After the Iraq Study Group: Possibilities for Arab-Israeli Peace..." It was, in short, the usual Washington peace-wonk crowd, and when the time for questions came, the first man to rise said that everything everyone had said was true and good, but hadn't they all been expressing the same true and good sentiments for 25 years now? 

One of the panelists, an Israeli named Daniel Levy, who directs a Middle East initiative at the New America and Century foundations, nodded, listening intently. Levy had been nodding a lot during the session, moving his head slowly up and down whenever he wasn't staring pointedly at other speakers, scanning the audience's reactions, furiously rewriting his prepared remarks, or clutching his chin in thought. Clad in a monochromatic gray suit and shirt, lacking a tie, he cut a dapper figure even before he began to speak. When he took the podium, though, he became downright dashing. Most think-tank denizens, put behind a microphone, stand calmly and speak dryly. Levy bounces and sways. He grips the podium, points emphatically, and punctuates with crescendos and whispers. The audience, which had already listened to nearly an hour of speeches, sat up noticeably as Levy settled into his oratory...
  
He describes his work here, which he calls a sabbatical, as largely an extension of his work there. He'd appeared at several think tank events in the U.S. to promote the Geneva Accord, and he'd gotten into conversations about the hawkish nature of U.S. discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. "There was this notion that the debate going on back in the region is not always reflected here," he said. So Levy, together with the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation, decided to import the debate by bringing Israeli and Palestinian moderates to Washington.
 
Once ensconced at New America, he began to host a Who's Who of the Middle East peace crowd at the foundation, drawing some key Senate staffers in addition to the usual wonks...

For the complete article, please visit the National Journal website.