I mentioned earlier that one of my goals for the blog this year is to make it a more regular outlet for expert commentary. Part of that effort will be semi-regular "5 questions" features. The idea, if it works, is that I'll line up an expert on something in the news, and you folks can submit questions. I'll pick the most useful five and send them over for answers. I'm going to start with Daniel Levy. Levy is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Middle East Initiative at the New America Foundation and a Senior Fellow and Director of the Prospects for Peace Initiative at The Century Foundation. During the Barak Government, he worked in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office as special adviser and head of Jerusalem Affairs, then as senior policy adviser to then Israeli Minister of Justice, Yossi Beilin. He was a member of the official Israeli delegation to the Taba negotiations with the Palestinians in January 2001, and previously served on the Israeli negotiating team to the "Oslo B" Agreement from May to September 1995, under Prime Minister Rabin. He also served as the lead Israeli drafter of the Geneva Initiative, a joint Israeli-Palestinian effort that suggests a detailed model for a peace agreement to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From 2003 to 2004, he worked as an analyst for the International Crisis Group Middle East Program. All of which is to say, he knows a lot of the relevant players on both sides of the conflict, and should be able to offer some real insight. Ask away.
