(Photo: michaelfranti.com)

Rebel rocker Michael Franti has spent most of a lifetime as a musician activist with tough progressive politics and tough playlist titles like “Yell Fire!” and “Bomb the World.”

He’s been beloved on the tour circuit, and nowhere at the top of the charts.

The past year — and a sweet, danceable love song — have changed all that. He’s a YouTube sensation, and suddenly up there with Taylor Swift and Beyonce.

This hour, On Point: Michael Franti and the story of “Say Hey (I Love You).”

You can join the conversation. Tell us what you think — here on this page, on Twitter, and on Facebook.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Michael Franti joins us from San Francisco. His new album is “All Rebel Rockers,” featuring the hit single “Say Hey (I Love You).” An outspoken peace activist, he’s been making his unique socially conscious blend of hip-hop, reggae, funk, and rock — and much more — for more than two decades. He and his band, Spearhead, will be touring with John Mayer in 2010.

Here’s the “Say Hey (I Love You)” video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eoaTl7IcFs8

And here’s Michael in concert singing “East to the West,” from the album “Yell Fire!”:

Through nearly 20 years of wild ups and downs, Aaron David Miller was in the middle of American efforts to broker Arab-Israeli peace in the Middle East. He saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of our efforts, and theirs.

Now he’s out of the bubble, and talking. Very frankly. About how Americans have lost sight of their country’s own interests in the gale of lobbying over the Mideast. About the need for tough love with everyone, including Israel, if peace — and U.S. security — are ever to be found.

This hour, On Point: Aaron David Miller on America as broker in the Mideast.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guest:

Aaron David Miller, former advisor to U.S. secretaries of state on Arab-Israeli negotiations between 1978 and 2003, his new book is “The Much Too Promised Land: America’s Elusive Search for Arab-Israeli Peace.”

In our post-9/11 world, religion is often seen as one of the most divisive forces. And for good reason. Religious extremism drives conflicts from Afghanistan to Iraq, fuels terrorism from Europe to Sri Lanka, and makes enemies of Israelis and Arabs.

And yet, says scholar Alan Wolfe, the world is not headed for a new era of religious wars. Quite the opposite. Around the world, he points to a decline in religious extremism as societies modernize and become more secular.

This hour, On Point: religion, secularization, and the coming era of religious peace.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Alan Wolfe, professor of political science and founding director of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life at Boston College, he is the author of many books, including “The Transformation of American Religion.” His article on “the coming religious peace” appears in the March issue of The Atlantic.

Martin Marty, professor emeritus of religion at the University of Chicago, and a Lutheran pastor, he is the author of more than 50 books, most recently “The Christian World: A Global History.”

Daniel Philpott, associate professor of political science and a faculty fellow of the Joan B. Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, he studies the role of religion in global politics.

The last time Israelis and Palestinians sat down at an American conference table to talk peace — seven long and bloody years ago — the Middle East was a different place.

Today, as the old adversaries meet in Annapolis, Maryland — along with the U.S. and dozens of other countries, including most of the Arab world — the backdrop is sobering: Iraq mired in civil war, Iran on the rise, Hamas ruling Gaza, and Sunnis and Shiites staring across a dangerous divide. In other words, the stakes at Annapolis could hardly be bigger.

This hour, On Point: Israelis, Palestinians, and the new Middle East.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Dennis Ross, former Middle East envoy for presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, now a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and author of “Statecraft: And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World.”

Fawaz Gerges, professor of International Affairs and Middle Eastern Studies at Sarah Lawrence College and author of “Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy.”

It feels like we’ve seen this before: US troops make progress in Iraq, while Iraq’s political and ethnic divide appears as vast as ever.

And yet something real has happened on the ground: the terrible bloodletting brought on by the fall of Saddam has ebbed. Neighborhoods are quieter. And as promised, the first drawdown of US troops has begun.

The “surge” gets part of the credit. But this isn’t peace yet, the generals warn. Iraq’s civil war still simmers beneath the surface, and what happens when the Americans ease their grip on the streets is anyone’s guess.

This hour, On Point: The surge, and the day after the surge.

-Jane Clayson

Guests:

Damien Cave, Baghdad correspondent for The New York Times.

Conrad Crane, director of the U. S. Army Military History Institute at the U.S. Army War College.

Paul Hughes, retired U.S. Army colonel, now senior program officer at the United States Institute of Peace.

Americans overwhelmingly say they oppose the war in Iraq, but the war in Iraq goes on.

So, where’s the antiwar movement?

Well, it’s all over — and nowhere. It’s in Congress, among Democrats and some Republicans. It was in the streets of Washington, D.C. this weekend, with a few thousand protestors chanting and marching. It was in the rhetoric in Iowa, at Senator Tom Harkin’s steak fry. But where’s the beef?

Last week belonged to Petraeus and Bush. Today, we hear from the antiwar crowd.

This hour On Point: Iraq war opposition, from the halls of Congress to the streets.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests:

Brian Becker, national coordinator of the ANSWER antiwar coalition.

Tom Andrews, national director of the antiwar coalition Win Without War.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat from Maryland.

Rep. Howard Coble, Republican from North Carolina.

Michael Crowley, senior editor at The New Republic and author of the recent New York Times Magazine artlicle “Can Lobbyists Stop the War?”.