Activists head to Hill with some partisan rancor Plus DSK in big trouble, and more in the news Obama's massively pro-Israel gesture has been overlooked  | |  President Obama's new Middle East diplomacy seems to eschew symbolic triumphs in favor of a pragmatic vision that keeps all sides guessing. Israel could have a lot to gain by signing on. One way to distinguish a truly gifted politician from the pack of run-of-the-mill political actors is by how long he can walk the tightrope between ambiguity and commitment while keeping the largest number of policy options up in the air. By keeping his audience guessing about his true intentions for as long as possible, the canny tightrope walker forces the parties to any given dispute into the role of mesmerized spectators. Boo, and one of the balls might drop to the ground. Applaud, and maybe the juggler will keep juggling a while longer. The circus performer's talent that is required here can be joined to any kind of politics, liberal or conservative, successful or not. Franklin D. Roosevelt had it. Yasser Arafat had it. Ariel Sharon had it. And Barack Obama has it. More  | Our celebrity-obsessed culture is depriving children of the lessons learned through playing bit parts More |  | In Leeches, a novel by the Serbian Jewish writer David Albahari, Belgrade plays home to nationalists, anti-Semites, and kabbalistic puzzles More | |
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