Former Israeli diplomat Daniel Levy, now at the New America Foundation, discusses the upcoming Annapolis peace conference, the letter from the American establishment to Bush and Rice urging them to make real progress toward a two-state solution, the negative consequences of current American policy, the failure of the “roadmap to peace,” the lack of a real strategic purpose behind the occupation of the West Bank and Golan Heights, U.S. intervention to the detriment of an Israeli/Syrian peace deal, the blown opportunity to work with Hamas and the consequences, the effect of the neocons’ “Clean Break” doctrine on current policy, the contemptible myth that the origin of America and Israel’s problems in the Middle East are rooted in radical Islam rather than real grievances about circumstances here on earth and his belief that the U.S. should remain involved, but should start getting it right.

MP3 here. (33:30)

Daniel Levy is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Policy Initiative of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. He was the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative and directed policy planning and international efforts at the Geneva Campaign Headquarters in Tel Aviv. Previously, Mr. Levy served as senior policy adviser to former Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin, and under the Barak government he worked in the prime minister’s office as a special adviser and head of the Jerusalem Affairs unit. He was a member of the Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and of the negotiating team for the “Oslo B” Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

As a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Policy Initiative at the New America Foundation, Mr. Levy seeks to encourage thought-provoking debate and offer strategic solutions for resolving the long-running conflicts in the Middle East, core among them the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He has published extensively in a broad range of publications including Ha’aretz, The Jerusalem Post, The Boston Globe, United Press International, The American Prospect, the International Herald Tribune, The Evening Standard (London), and the blog TPMCafe.

Investigative reporter Robert Parry, of ConsortiumNews.com and author of Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush, discusses the Iran-Contra model for running the government, the failure of Colin Powell and allies to adequately stand up to Cheney and the neocons, the current state of the situation in Iraq, the rules of engagement, the second phase of the El Salvador option, the weakness of al Qaeda’s position in Iraq, the occupation’s benefit to them, the purpose behind the policy of backing the Ba’athists at the same time as the Maliki (Da’wa/SCIRI) government, the Bush administration’s bogus theory of unlimited power and technologies of control, the possibility that Iraqis may eventually tire of fighting and accept occupation, the neocons’ belief that it’s time to expand their triumph to Pakistan, the history of the mujahedeen’s CIA -backed war against the Russians in Afghanistan, the U.S. policy of ignoring Pakistan’s drive to obtain nuclear weapons in the 1980s, the impossibility of the Kagan/O’Hanlon plan for invasion, the neocon s’ history and mentality, their exaggeration of the Soviet threat as the USSR was falling apart, their taking of credit for it when it did and Adm. Fallon’s recent statement to the Financial Times against war with Iran.

MP3 here. (44:05)

Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek, runs ConsortiumNews.com, and is the author of Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq and the brand new Neck Deep: The Disastrous Presidency of George W. Bush.