The entire concept, as Greenblatt himself said several times in the past, is to present a “vision” to the Palestinians. The intent, he said, was to convey a message to the Palestinian people and their leadership that if political agreement is reached, here’s what could happen, here are the many great things that the Palestinians could benefit from. And if no agreement is achieved, he said, the intention is for them to better understand the conflict, to enable people to dream, as he put it, of what could be accomplished to replace the current situation.

In addition to the Gaza-West Bank link, which would inevitably cross Israeli territory, there are proposals to register Palestinian ownership of land and to allow Palestinian farmers greater access to water and arable land. These outcomes would put Netanyahu in a tough squeeze… Other elements of the plan suggest an embrace of Palestinian national identity, which could also be a hard sell to Israeli hardliners, and even to Netanyahu’s Likud Party.

Economic programs have been tried before in the long line of U.S.-led peace efforts, only to fail for lack of political progress. Kushner’s approach, however, may be the most detailed so far, presented in two pamphlets of 40 and 96 pages each that are filled with financial tables and economic projections.

…for now the Trump administration appears wholly focused on squeezing Iran economically, deterring Iranian aggression, and preparing for a possible military conflict—not laying the groundwork for serious negotiations. If its pressure campaign is a means to an end of a negotiated solution, rather than the end itself, the administration hasn’t clearly articulated what that solution is or how it plans to arrive at it.

The great weakness of Donald Trump’s foreign policy is its volatility. He is unpredictable to a fault… He warned that “if Iran wants to fight, that will be the official end of Iran,” but he lets Iran shoot down a drone and interfere with international shipping.

More than choosing not to take the lives of Iranian military personnel – and quite possibly, civilians – President Trump did one better and purposely gave the leadership of Iran some wiggle room in order for them to save face and deescalate the growing tension… President Trump is not looking for his “Wag the Dog” moment to look more presidential. In the best interest of the United States, he is trying to deescalate a highly dangerous situation which could easily spiral out of control.

There is nothing more “presidential” than that.

Nothing will happen to hold Trump accountable for his alleged treatment of women, not during his presidency and not after. The reality-distortion field that Trump emits, and that his most ardent supporters have embraced, provides him with a grant of immunity so powerful that it has come to seem irrevocable and impenetrable. Of course I haven’t wanted to say this out loud. The only possible response is despair.

What began as a decent attempt to right the wrongs done to women has turned into a movement that cheapens survivors’ stories and promotes bad-faith assumptions. Somewhere along the way, between Harvey Weinstein’s downfall and Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony, sexual assault became just another political commodity.

Carroll knows this. Perhaps that’s why she hasn’t come forward until now.

…if the 2018 midterms have taught us anything, it’s that women remember. We may never see the president impeached and removed from office but we can remove him ourselves on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2020, when we women go to the polls and show Republican politicians that character does in fact matter and that we believe women.

No matter the amount, smart philanthropy takes work. Too often we let the number of zeros on the checks someone writes cloud our vision of real philanthropy. Large gifts can certainly move the needle of change in a big way. They can also give philanthropy a bad name, such as with Mark Zuckerberg’s ill-conceived $100 million gift to the Newark, N.J., schools.

If donating nearly all wealth becomes the socially-accepted standard for billionaires — and we are clearly a long way from that point — there is the potential for philanthropy at a scale that has no historical precedent. And for billionaires like Bezos just now joining in, there’s no need to study-up or invent new programs. There are dozens of evidence-based, rigorously studied, highly-cost-effective initiatives that are currently underfunded and that directly save lives.

Despite some initial hoopla, the Giving Pledge has not changed philanthropy very much. Billionaires are still accumulating wealth faster than they are giving it away. The wealthy are still giving away less of their money than everyone else. Giving Pledgers are still not giving at the pace required to part with half their loot before they die.

Now, you might be tempted to believe this is some kind of divine or karmic punishment against those who give their lives to technology, but in fact it’s about something far more mundane: posture… The growths represent “muscolosketal degeneration” that result from “long-term stress on the skeleton,” and the theory is that the act of constantly looking down at a device accounts for the new prevalence in younger people.

Hold your panic. First off, the horn idea doesn’t quite work here. Horns are usually at the top of the skull, not the base of the skull near the neck, which is where these growths have been found. But, of course, that doesn’t make for as catchy a headline or tweet.

We love to fear mobile phones, because they are new and difficult to understand, but the reality is much more mundane. It’s possible that they’re causing neck problems, but currently it’s hard to know if it’s the phones or another element of our lives that is to blame. There’s definitely no reason to believe that using a phone is going to make you sprout devil horns.