Middle East Task Force: Recent and Upcoming Events

On November 13, Patrick Doherty and the American Strategy Program hosted the Hon. Gary Hart and Daniel Levy in the third of a series of briefings on the run-up to the upcoming Middle East peace conference in Annapolis, MD. Gary Hart represented Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987, where he served on the Armed Services Committee and specialized in nuclear arms control, among many other topics. Sen. Hart is a distinguished fellow at the New America… more

On November 2, Daniel Levy and the American Strategy Program hosted Dan Rothem of the Center for Middle East Peace & Economic Cooperation in the second in a series of briefings in the run-up to the Annapolis peace conference. Mr. Rothem came to the New America Foundation to look at and present the current realities and options on all the territorial issues and ideas raised in previous negotiations, and he has developed the most extensive and up-to-date map database on… more

On October 30, Steve Clemons and the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation hosted Secretary General of the Palestinian National Initiative and MP of the Palestinian Legislative Council Mustafa Barghouti in a conversation with Rita Hauser, president of the Hauser Foundation and Israeli/Palestinian affairs expert, and Daniel Levy, director of the Middle East Policy Initiative at New America and publisher of www.ProspectsForPeace.com. The panelists came together to discuss the landscape of events in the run-up to… more

Please join us on Wednesday, July 11th on Capitol Hill for an enlightening discussion with Brigadier General (Ret.) Ilan Paz, former head of the Israeli Civil Administration in the West Bank (2002-2005) and Talia Sasson, who served as legal advisor to Prime Minister Sharon on settlements, outposts, and the rule of law in the territories. She was also the author of the definitive and far-reaching “Sasson Report”-- an official governmental paper which included an extensive set of… more

The Israeli Winograd Committee investigating last summer’s Lebanon War has just published its interim report, and it is nothing short of a political earthquake in Israel that could have implications for the region and U.S. foreign policy.

At this New America event, our resident Israeli and expert, Daniel Levy, and American Strategy Program Director Steven Clemons, analyzed both the report and the political fall-out. Levy, who worked in the Prime Minister's Office under the Barak government, was a… more

This full-day conference on the future of U.S.-Iran relations, co-sponsored by the National Iranian American Council, was held as scheduled on Wednesday, despite the inclement weather and delayed opening of federal government offices.

Video of this event is available at right, while an MP3 audio recording can be downloaded below.

This event was supported by the Pluralism Fund, Kenbe Foundation, Ploughshares Fund and Open Society Institute.

In contrast to the Iraq Study Group and numerous other advocates of compartmentalized, incremental diplomacy with Iran, a new report authored by New America Senior Fellow Flynt Leverett and published by the Century Foundation calls for comprehensive engagement with Tehran. While the Bush Administration continues to cast doubt on the viability of negotiations with Iran, and the Iraq Study Group report advocates decoupling discussions about Iraq from those regarding the Iranian nuclear issue, Leverett’s report argues that the only… more

Ralf Fücks has recently suggested utilizing NATO as the de facto security guarantor between the Israelis and Palestinians and as the stabilizing force in the greater Middle East. Fücks proposes absorbing Israel into NATO and simultaneously restarting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, arguing that a U.S.-European alliance can both reassure Israel and secure support from Arab states to take a hard line position against an increasingly emboldened and unruly Iran. Bringing Israel into the transatlantic security compact guarantees Israeli security while offering… more

Rita E. Hauser is President of The Hauser Foundation and Co-Chair of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. She is an international lawyer and of counsel to the New York City law firm, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan where she was a senior partner for more than twenty years. Dr. Hauser was previously appointed by President George W. Bush to the President's Intelligence Advisory Board and to the Intelligence Oversight Board.

Known for her public service and… more

Yossi Beilin, member of the Israeli Knesset and chairman of the Meretz-Yachad party, is the controversial realist-optimist of Israeli politics. In this special session, Dr. Beilin's only public appearance in Washington this visit, Dr. Beilin reflected on the dynamics in Israeli, regional, and global politics that make a revived peace effort not only a necessity, but also a working proposition. Dr. Beilin debunked the naysayer thesis that given the current political climate, Israeli-Arab peace is a non-starter.

A member of… more

We are pleased to invite you to a discussion with David Kimche, who served for many years as Deputy Head of the Mossad and later became Director-General of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Relations. Mr. Kimche will be discussing the current situation in Israel and the region, the prospects for a peace move, a new round of conflict or something in-between. Kimche brings his wealth of experience and depth of analysis to an assessment of the options for a comprehensive… more

In a lunchtime forum jointly sponsored by The New America Foundation's American Strategy Program and The Century Foundation's Prospects for Peace Initiative, Robert Malley, Middle East and North Africa Program Director at the International Crisis Group, presented and discussed the report, The Arab-Israeli Conflict: To Reach a Lasting Peace.

This new International Crisis Group report looks at the lessons from the conflict this summer, the last six years of regression, and the United States' political absence from the process.… more

President Bush is likely to face in the not too distant future a “bleak binary choice” regarding Iran that juxtaposes two fundamental options that have profound geostrategic consequences. The first of these is to launch a military operation against Iran's perceived nuclear capacity, and the other is to acquiesce and adjust to Iran's eventual acquisition of nuclear weapons. These are the two framing options in the debate -- but concerned members of the foreign policy establishment are racing to construct… more

Please join us for this important discussion on the prospects for peace in the Middle East. A more detailed event description will follow shortly.

At this recent New America event, Flynt Leverett, former National Security Council Senior Director of Middle East affairs and Middle East expert with the current Administration's Policy Planning Staff, outlined a compelling vision for a U.S. recovery strategy for the region in this special event with American Strategy Program Director Steven Clemons.

The discussion elaborated on Leverett's cover story for The American Prospect, which makes a cogent case for the return of a realist-based… more

Please join us as Steve Clemons, Director of the New America Foundation’s American Strategy Program, moderates an examination of the important challenges we face in the Middle East with James Dobbins and Daniel Levy.

Dobbins, Director of the International Security and Defense Policy Center at Rand Coproration, published an op-ed in the August 13, 2006 edition of the International Herald Tribune titled "Moral Clarity in the Middle East." Levy… more