Why There's No Chance an Israeli-Arab Peace is Now Possible -- and Why That View is Wrong

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 the Knesset for eleven years, Dr. Beilin has held ministerial positions in the governments of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres and Ehud Barak. Dr. Beilin has been a leading proponent of the peace process, initiating the secret channel of talks that resulted in the 1993 Oslo Accords, leading the movement for a withdrawal from Lebanon, negotiating at the Taba talks with the Palestinians in, and heading the talks with Palestinian Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo that resulted in the 2003 Geneva Accords. Recently, Dr. Beilin has been calling for a 2nd Madrid-style conference that would bring together all the regional actors in a peace push. Given the current political realities, can the Israeli politician most associated with pragmatic pro-peace politics still deliver the goods?

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

Participants

• Yossi Beilin
  Member of Israeli Knesset, Chairman of the Meretz-Yachad Party,
  former Minister & Israeli-Arab Peace Negotiator
• Steve Clemons
  Senior Fellow and Director, American Strategy Program, New America Foundation
  Publisher, www.TheWashingtonNote.com
• Daniel Levy
  Director, Middle East Peace Initiatives
  New America Foundation/The Century Foundation