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| Key Publications |
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| The Peace Storm |
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National Journal,
1/6/2007
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| A profile by the National Journal on Daniel Levy, a Senior Fellow and the Director of the Prospects for Peace Intiative at The Century Foundation. |
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Download the PDF article.
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| Commentary |
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| The Best and Worst of 2007: Middle East Developments |
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Michael Wahid Hanna,
The Century Foundation,
1/4/2008
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The Best
Violence in Iraq down. Regardless of one’s views on the wisdom of the U.S. troop surge, the causes for the current downturn in violence or its near-term sustainability, the fact that U.S. troops and the long-suffering Iraqis are experiencing a significant decrease in violence is a welcome development. |
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| Going for the Middle East Civil War Trifecta |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
6/14/2007
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| Gaza seems to be descending towards a civil war, Lebanon lurched closer to conflict with the killing today of MP Walid Eido and ongoing clashes at the Nahr El-Bared camp, and the Iraqi civil war, already long underway, took another desperate turn with the re-bombing of the Shia mosque at Samarra. |
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| A Note on all the Israel-Syria Noise |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
6/12/2007
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| This weekend's Israeli papers are almost single-issue editions, but over there it's all about Israel-Syria, war or peace, not Paris Hilton. The Israeli daily Ma'ariv has a poll showing 84 percent of Israelis oppose a total withdrawal from the Golan (though it split almost 50-50 on a partial withdrawal). Ma'ariv's lead opinion writer, Dan Margalit calls on Prime Minister Olmert to form a cross-party national advisory council to manage the Syria file and to build a broad consensus for a peace deal. Haaretz' lead analysis piece by Amir Oren discusses a countdown to war, and how it might still be avoided. |
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| Five Comments on the Lebanon Situation |
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Daniel Levy,
TPM Cafe,
5/22/2007
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| A battle is raging in the Northern Lebanese city of Tripoli between the Lebanese Armed Forces and militants from the little and little known Fatah Al-Islam movement; meanwhile two bombs have exploded in civilian areas of Beirut in the last 48 hours. The death toll in and around the Nahr Al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli, the center of the fighting, is unknown, but it already numbers in the tens. |
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| New Context for Peace |
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Rafi Dajani,
Daniel Levy,
The Jewish Advocate,
5/10/2007
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| Israel just marked its 59th birthday and like a typical baby boomer, she tends to vent her frustration at dreams not realized. Yet a core Israeli dream—to not only establish a state but to have that state accepted in the Middle East and live at peace with its neighbors—is within reach. If only Israel—having finally gotten to yes with the Arab world—would recognize it. |
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| Five for Fighting |
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Daniel Levy,
Guardian Unlimited,
5/2/2007
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| The Israeli Winograd Committee Report on last summer's Lebanon war was published today, and it presents Israel with something of a Blackadder moment. During the first world war series one of the recruits tells Captain Blackadder he had wanted to see how a war was fought badly, to which the Rowan Atkinson character replies: "Well, you are in the right place then. A war hasn't been fought this badly since Oluf, king of the Vikings, ordered 1,000 helmets with the horns facing down." |
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| Another Brick in the Wall |
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Daniel Levy,
Guardian Unlimited,
4/25/2007
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| A lead story out of Iraq in recent days has been the construction of a 12-foot high and three-mile long wall in the Adhamiya district of northern Baghdad. |
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| Time to Change the Tune |
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Daniel Levy,
Haaretz,
3/26/2007
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| When the character of the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, recently appeared on the popular Israel TV comedy show "Eretz nehederet" (A Wonderful Country), she was depicted singing Aretha Franklin's famous anthem "Respect." As Rice arrives in Israel this weekend for her seventh visit in eight months, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would be well advised to show her just a little bit more respect. |
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| Prelude to Peace |
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Daniel Levy,
The American Prospect,
2/22/2007
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| Under Saudi auspices in the holy city of Mecca, overlooking the sacred Kaaba stone, Palestinian Fatah and Hamas leaderships finally reached a power-sharing deal last month. The deal came 13 months after the Hamas victory in Palestinian legislative elections, and the party's subsequent inability to form a functioning government in the face of an international boycott, Arab opposition, and an ongoing standoff with President Abbas and his Fatah movement. |
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| Peace Envoy Rice versus Secretary Rice |
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Daniel Levy,
The Huffington Post,
2/15/2007
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| This coming Monday Secretary Rice will bring together the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a trilateral summit. Her regional visit, that culminates with this summit, will mark Rice's fifth trip to the Middle East in just over six months. She has personally overseen the summit preparations, convened her Quartet partners (the EU, Russia, and UN Secretary-General) in Washington, and called for a political horizon between Israeli's and Palestinians. |
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| Hope for the Middle East? |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
2/2/2007
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| Secretary Rice is hosting the principals of the Quartet on Friday in Washington. It will be the first Quartet meeting during the German presidency of the EU and with the new UN Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon (the Russians make up the foursome). Question is, almost four years after launching a Road Map that has gone nowhere and six years since the last Israeli-Palestinian official political negotiations at Taba, whether anything will actually move this time or will it be more declarations and platitudes? |
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| Seven Lean Years in Middle East Diplomacy |
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Daniel Levy,
The Huffington Post,
1/17/2007
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| Secretary Rice continues her swing through (the non-boycotted states of) the Middle East, but the Israeli media has already drawn its own conclusions on the prospects of her producing any kind of breakthrough. The secretary's visit is forgotten and Israel is abuzz with the breaking story of secret peace talks that produced a draft text for a future Israeli-Syrian agreement. |
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| An Informal Diplomatic Surge: Draft Israeli-Syrian Peace Deal Revealed |
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Daniel Levy,
TPM Cafe,
1/17/2007
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| As Secretary Rice continues her swing through the Middle East, pointedly avoiding Damascus, Haaretz journalist Akiva Eldar today revealed that two years of informal meetings have produced a draft text for an Israeli-Syrian peace agreement. The full text can be read here and the story here. While neither is as detailed nor dramatic as the Geneva Initiative model Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, the new text exposed in Haaretz goes another step in demystifying the parameters of a comprehensive Israeli-Arab peace. |
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| Conflict Resolution: The Worst of 2006 Will Be Worse in 2007 |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
The Century Foundation,
1/8/2007
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| Believe it or not, global conflicts have been on the decline since the beginning of the twenty-first century. While there are no best and worst conflicts, it must be said that at the start of the century there were fifteen major wars (defined by the UN as over a thousand battlefield deaths per year) being fought across the globe. That number had dropped to eight at the beginning of 2006. |
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| Study Some More |
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Daniel Levy,
The American Prospect,
12/22/2006
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| Barely two weeks old, the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group Report is viewed by many as having already suffered crib death. Those who shaped the initial disastrous policy in Iraq and the broader Middle East have waged a tenacious and effective counter-attack against the 79 Report recommendations. Somehow, we have now reached a place where the most likely next step on Iraq will be a combination of troop escalation ("surge" in language-massaged neocon speak) and an even more stubborn refusal to talk with the country's neighbors, notably Syria and Iran. |
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| Ask Santa for the Baker-Hamilton Report |
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Daniel Levy,
TPM Cafe,
12/21/2006
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| The ISG is already dead on arrival to many. The neo-cons have launched a relentless attack – see the AEI’s “Choosing Victory” plan, Gaffney on the “Iraq Surrender Group,” the NY Post’s "Surrender Monkeys," Perle, Kristol, et al. Democratic responses have not provided the kind of strategic defense of the ISG Report that would be smart both politically and in policy terms. |
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| The Road to Baghdad Runs Through Jerusalem |
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Daniel Levy,
TPM Cafe,
12/6/2006
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| MJ’s post has almost said it all, but let’s just recap why the ISG recommendations on the broader Middle East context not only add up to good policy, but why a Dem embrace of these recommendations also makes good politics. |
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| Send the Baker Commission to Gaza |
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Daniel Levy,
Washington Monthly,
11/20/2006
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| Democrats made huge gains this election, largely because voters rejected the administration’s policy in Iraq. But even before the electorate took its frustration over the war out on the president’s party, Congress recognized the need for a new direction. In March, House Republicans—led by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) and supported by such senior GOP figures as Sen. John Warner (R-Va.)—asked James Baker and Lee Hamilton to form the Iraq Study Group. The group, which is expected to offer policy recommendations within the next few weeks, was widely understood to offer the White House an opportunity to chart a new course in Iraq without having to admit its previous policies were wrong. |
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| The Democratic Congress Must Not Out-Right the Bushies on Israel |
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Daniel Levy,
TPM Cafe,
11/9/2006
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| The new Democratic Congress must understand that to re-stabilize the Middle East and to improve chances of damage limitation in Iraq will mean re-engaging on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The Baker-Hamilton study group should provide cover for this second fundamental reassessment of Middle East policy. |
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| Labor at Peace with Rabin in Life—Not in Death |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
The Century Foundation,
11/3/2006
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| This week marks the 11th anniversary of the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin. To commemorate the death of the great Labor leader who championed the peace process between Israel and its neighbors—the Labor Party has joined their leader in death, burying themselves under the earth of Mt. Herzl. |
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| A Principled Voice From Israel |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
10/31/2006
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| An unusual thing happened in Israeli politics today; a Labor Party minister in the Olmert government, Ophir Pines-Paz, actually resigned his seat as an act of principled opposition to the inclusion in the governing coalition and the cabinet of Avigdor Lieberman and his “Yisrael Beiteinu” (Israel Our Homeland) Party, which advocates among other things ridding Israel of as much of its Arab minority as possible. Lieberman has been associated with the pro-transfer far-right in Israel and has advocated bombing just about everything in Israel’s neighborhood, Egypt (which Israel is at peace with) included. |
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| Ending the Neoconservative Nightmare |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
8/7/2006
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| An America that seeks to reshape the Middle East through an unsophisticated mixture of bombs and ballots, devoid of local contextual understanding, alliance-building or redressing of grievances, ultimately undermines both itself and Israel. |
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| The EU Must Act |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
The Century Foundation,
7/27/2006
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| The members of the European Union are scrambling to salvage their first diplomatic attempt to end the current crisis. |
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| East of Eden |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
TomPaine.com,
7/18/2006
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| The unfolding war isn't business as usual in the troubled Middle East—a feature of the war that may make it all the more merciless, yet possibly open the door for a conclusive end to the conflict as well. |
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| Bad Cop, Worse Cop |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
The Century Foundation,
7/13/2006
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| The United States and Israel have always operated within the “good cop—bad cop” paradigm, with America’s role as “good cop” allowing it to maintain its status as an “honest broker” for peace in the region. By tacitly approving Tel Aviv’s disproportionate response, Washington is unveiling a new paradigm—“bad cop—worse cop”—and in doing so, compromising its role as fair interlocutor. |
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| Palestinian Elections: Not Politics as Usual |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
Jeffrey Laurenti,
The Century Foundation,
1/28/2006
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| Before writing off the prospects for progress entirely in the wake of the Palestinian elections, there a few points worth remembering. |
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| Israel and the EU: A Path to Peace |
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Michael Shtender-Auerbach,
The Century Foundation,
11/3/2005
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| Israel's request that the European Union secure the Egyptian-Gaza border presents a challenge for the EU, but also shows Israel's underlying desire for a stronger relationship with Europe. |
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| Ending the Neoconservative Nightmare |
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Daniel Levy,
The Century Foundation,
8/7/2006
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| An America that seeks to reshape the Middle East through an unsophisticated mixture of bombs and ballots, devoid of local contextual understanding, alliance-building or redressing of grievances, ultimately undermines both itself and Israel. |
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Taking Note
