discuss the middle east peace process i'm joined by gideon levy in tel aviv he is a herat columnist and author of the recent book the punishment of gaza and in boston we have alan dershowitz professor at harvard law school and bestselling author and another member of our cross talk team yelling the hunger again if i go to you first in tel aviv. the word bribery is being used a lot right now almost across the board and the deal is that israel to commit to another ninety day one off moratorium on settlement building in occupied the occupied west bank in jerusalem they've been given a three billion dollar military deal lots of jets there and if there were any kind of resolution coming from the world at large wanting to recognize the palestinian state. beyond these negotiations and netanyahu and his government who are still thinking about it maybe maybe looking for more of a deal i mean how weak is the united states in and pushing its strong ally in the middle east to commit to the peace process because there's a lot of depression about the process right now go ahead. i'm not sure that the

. >> i wrote a book about the punishment of gaza, not the punishment of gideon levy.laughter] >> look, because those questions are questions that i really try to find my way, first of all the question, the definition of zionism. i don't know. it has occupation him i'm not only not there, i think basically what is today zionism, i am not a scientist. -- zionist. and design is good and something else i could have joined it. but it's not what i wish it would be. so i am not that, so. now the lady. the young lady. >> in 1948, the u.s. military a short time after the u.s. recognition of israel, although it had been very, very much against the creation of the state, suddenly decided it was a very good thing. and they made their exit, decision very clear. they said it was a good thing because this new state had a very excellent military come and it could be useful for us in protecting our interest. and they went beyond that to talk about oil. that was 1948. you haven't said anything about the israeli role in u.s. foreign policy in the middle east. which is another dimension.

. >> up next, israeli journalist gideon levy talks about his coverage of the israeli occupation of gaza. columbia university in new york city is the host of this event, it's an hour, 40 minutes. >> i would like, first of all, to thank all of you for coming. i have many d