hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle u.s. president barack obama is about to visit the state of israel the first time during his time in office the so-called peace process we're told is not on the agenda so the real purpose of the visit around syria with what i call the great in the arab muslim world what does obama hope to achieve beyond paying his respects. to cross a bomb has upcoming visit to israel i'm joined by norman finkelstein a new york political analyst and an author and in amman we have. co-editor of john the gentleman you can jump in anytime you want you know crosstalk rules maureen if i can go to you first i mean why is obama going to the middle east now what does he want to achieve. it doesn't appear that he's trying to achieve anything people who know us foreign policy much better than i have suggested that the purpose of the visit is simply to visit and to check that box and to be able to demonstrate that he's been to israel and to get out of the way at the beginning of his term and it doesn't and it certainl

hello and welcome to cross copper all things considered i'm peter lavelle a dangerous neighborhood and it's only getting more dangerous serious grinding civil war now involves a wide array of regional and global powers all with their own agenda including israel what are tell of us goals in this conflict what are the risks of failure and will anarchy be the only winner in the syrian civil war. to cross talk the war in syria i'm joined by dan arbella in washington he is again scholar at the sob in center for middle east policy at the brookings institution and of former israeli diplomat also in washington we have now he is a political analyst and in london we cross to. he is the president of the arab lawyers association in the u.k. right gentlemen crossed cycles in effect it means you can jump in anytime you want daniel if i can go to you first in washington what is their sales agenda in this war right now because we hear maybe a buffer zone could be created into syria. is not intervening in the conflict taking place in syria but it's watching the situation unfolding very very closely isr

hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered on peter lavelle the catholic church has a new leader of pope francis from argentina and jesuit you see mr dramatic even bold departure from the past can this simple man of humble origins reverse the fortunes of a church in crisis and what can the world expect from a pope hate when from the global south. cross not the recent election i'm joined by sister my report in london she is a religious sister and a founding member of catholic woman's ordination in atlanta we have diane doddery she is an ordained minister in the association of roman catholic women priests and in on a well we cross to john henry weston he is the co-founder and editor in chief of life site news dot com all right folks cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want sister myra we have a new pope is he the right man at the right time with the right message i to know much about sorry i don't know much about him but he seems a radical choice at the moment but we'll find out ok diane you want to die and you want to answer the same

hello and welcome to crossfire where all things considered i'm peter lavelle almost twenty years after the genocide some claim that rwanda is not only on the mend now but also could be considered a development model for other african countries to follow what accounts for rwanda's turnaround is it due to good governance or is it because of western foreign aid aid some say is given because of a guilty conscience. to discuss the situation in rwanda i'm joined by on the revolt check in nairobi he is a novelist filmmaker and an investigative journalist in washington we have anthony kim he is a senior policy analyst at the center for international trade and economics and in london we crossed to michael amoa he is an expert on africa at the london school of economics ok anthony if i could go to you first how would you describe the situation in rwanda because there's a lot of positive news coming out but there's a lot of political news that isn't so positive so give me the balance. that's true what rwanda is going through is kind of interesting transition as we have seen that has been making a

hello and welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle non-governmental organizations or n.g.o.s what purpose do they serve today and are they politicized can really be called non-governmental if it receives money from governments and what about the donors are they interested parties. do cross talk n.g.o.s i'm joined by david rieff in new york he is a writer and senior fellow at the world policy institute and in pittsburgh we cross to clifford bob he is a political science professor at the caine university and author of the new book the global right wing all right gentlemen crosstalk rules in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want david if i'm going to you want to people say today that n.g.o.s are over politicized how do you come down on that. i think everything is political so for me you know this doesn't come as a kind of shock horror of all ation that n.g.o.s are political i think the more interesting question would be what kind of politics they represent and whether you can say that and geopolitics have right wing or left wing to the extent those. those c

hello and welcome to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle another shot at forced regime change that's what it looks like syria continues to experience collapse the neighborhood is not being spared what was a tragic domestic civil war is now becoming a regional conflict again the law of unintended consequences appears to be in play . across not the syrian civil war i'm joined by flynt leverett in washington he is a professor of international relations at penn state university and co-author of the book going to turn around why the united states must come to terms with the islamic republic of iran also in washington we have matthew feeney he is an assistant editor at reason twenty four seven and in new york we cross to ed hussein he's a senior fellow for middle eastern studies at the council on foreign relations gentlemen cross-talk rules and i think that means you can jump in anytime you want flynt. libya ics imploded is syria exploding and taking the neighborhood with it. the risks of that are certainly increasing i've been saying for seems like two years now that the onl

wasn't willing to fully bail out cyprus that's debated in cross talk with peter lavelle later this hour. germans are only agreed to this bailout if the russians depositors which is a lot is about thirty billion dollars worth of russian money in those banks they don't get away scot free but in these pools of deposits overwhelmingly the people who are getting by this time zone depositors are cypriots. and the notion that. russian oligarchs and so on are being brought by this is really put about in germany in order to justify the very harsh treatment of cypriot savers. we've been seeing. barack obama is heading to key ally israel for the first time as u.s. president obama's a previous term in office or frosty relations with israel's recently related prime minister benjamin netanyahu however expectations of a breakthrough on the most pressing issues appear low even among u.s. officials that many see them much and trumpeted visit as a p.r. stunt artie's policy larry ports. when former american president george bush visited israel his trip was dubbed clear skies pope benedict the sixteenth wa

hello and welcome to cross talk or all things considered i'm peter lavelle. bailing is this government theft in broad daylight is applying a levy on depositors the answer to this small islands financial woes or is it a means to tax russians using cyprus as a legal tax haven and most importantly can europeans trust their banks anymore. to cross the cyprus financial crisis i'm joined by michael burke in london he is an economic consultant and a former senior international economist with citi bank and in washington we cross the shares and raymond she is a professor of international finance and director of the european union research center at george washington university all right crosstalk rules in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want when you go to washington first you said this is moral hazard this is what's going on in cyprus right now can you explain that please. sure sure the you know this is unprecedented what is happening right now in a financial crisis the one the one entity you protect are always a small savers and they're getting hit this

owen welcome across town for all things are considered i'm peter lavelle. maniacal dictator cordially popular in the democratic leader of the people what is his legacy did he leave venezuela and his people better off why did washington demonize him so and will the chavez revolution outlived its founder. cross-talk the chavez legacy i'm joined by george took a real mar in philadelphia he's an assistant professor of political science at drexel university and author of the upcoming book we created chavez in london we have boyd he is a venezuelan blogger and civil and political rights activist and in washington we cross to alex maine he is an international policy analyst at the center for economic and policy research right gentlemen cross-talk rules in effect i mean you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it george what is job as his legacy. well i think frankly each other's legacy is twofold domestically speaking the first is the vast improvement in the social welfare of everyday venezuelans the massive decline in poverty the near eradicatio

lowing welcome across town for all things are considered i'm peter lavelle the residents of the falkland islands or moby does have spoken they wish to maintain their status as a british overseas territory argentina has dismissed a referendum is following it would appear the twin pillars of the international order are on a collision course does self-determination trump the sanctity of sovereignty. to cross not this island dispute i'm joined by blue coffee in washington he's a market bacha fellow with the heritage foundation also in washington we have willard. he is a research fellow at the council on hemispheric affairs and in london we crossed to richard got he is a former latin american correspondent and editor for the guardian or a gentleman cross-talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage it richard if i go to you first the recent referendum overwhelmingly passed so we should recognize self-determination of those people living on those islands yes or no. determination doesn't apply group of people living on an island miles away from the

the low end welcome to cross talk for all things considered i'm peter lavelle ten years ago this week the united states and its so-called coalition of the willing invaded iraq the war was supposed to be a walk in the park and pay for itself things turned out very differently a decade on what has been achieved any lessons learned and will anyone ever be held accountable for a war that should have never been fought in the first place. to cross off the war in iraq ten years on i'm joined by my guests in washington john glaser he's an editor at antiwar dot com we also have douglas oliphant he is a senior fellow at the new america foundation and a former director for iraq at the u.s. national security council and finally we cross to jeff mullard he is chair of the board at iraq veterans against the war in effect gentlemen that means you can jump in anytime you want john if i go to you first ten years on has the united states achieved any of its strategic goals it wanted back ten years ago. no and what has to be remembered i mean the iraq war quite simply is the most horrendous thing my gov

hello and welcome to crossfire all things considered i'm peter lavelle almost twenty years after the genocide some claim that is not only on the mend now but also could be considered a development model for other african countries to follow what accounts for rwanda's turnaround is it due to good governance or is it because of western foreign aid aid.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things are considered i'm peter lavelle u.s. president barack obama is about to visit the state of israel the first time during his time in office the so-called peace process we're told is not on the agenda so what is the real purpose of the visit around syria to cope with what i call the great unraveling in the arab muslim.

ninety's awash with money and influence early aurore sushi you discuss the tycoons legacy with peter lavellehost of artie's crosstalk. boris berezovsky here man who absolutely made a fortune as they say during the ninety's a total and you stay in russia you stole it let's be clear here is not only didn't make this the even a woman i mean it pilate a manipulator ok he used the system what was happening in russia the political system had collapsed the economy had collapsed belief in authority had collapsed everything it was in collapse so he picked up pieces all the all over the place where he was he didn't generate wealth you store wealth let's be clear about who they can you can you talk about in the end because you know talking off air about the the rule of seven of bankers that came out of this is where the term of darks came in i think was better software that invented it essentially that in one thousand nine hundred six a small number of people had a community enormous wealth but they wanted more and they said to yeltsin we'll get you reelected but you have to give me shares in state ins

o n welcome to cross talk we're all things are considered i'm peter lavelle the italian people have spoken and they're deeply divided how does this bode for the euro and the brussels cash for austerity consensus as well as any plans for structural reform of the currency how long can the eurozone muddle through with high unemployment and recession particularly when voters punish very harshly anyone who goes for austerity. to cross not the euro crisis i'm joined by dylan matthews in washington he's a reporter for the washington post also in washington we have nicholas varan he is a visiting fellow at the peterson institute for international economics and in london we crossed to david coburn he is a member of the u.k. independence party all right folks cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i very much encourage a deal and if i go to you first in washington political paralysis in italy what does this do for the ongoing euro crisis i mean is it making it far far worse doesn't make it better the one glimmer of hope for the euro. i suppose that can be taken fr