The Middle East is the Legoland of geopolitics. It’s a regional theater putting on a huge production, something like enacting the five-act tragedy “The Last Days of Humankind” in a puppet theater. This certainly has something to do with the fact that the Israelis and Palestinians aren’t ready or willing to solve the conflict among themselves. That in turn comes from that fact that there are too many string-pullers and middlemen meddling behind the scenes, offering their “help.” More than 1,000 NGOs are active in the West Bank alone, all of them stepping on each other’s toes. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,697151,00.html

What the region needs is a revolutionary who is respected, even admired, by all sides. No one could fit that description, you say? But I can think of one such person, and Obama should commission him as soon as possible. “Think different” is his maxim, he’s considered a genius and a guru, a messiah and a slave driver, a cool visionary with solid footing in the mainstream. He is known for his fearlessness in the face of political authorities, for his ability to “swim with the sharks,” as one of his employees put it, and for the fact that he’s no stranger to censorship. I’m sure we can both agree these are all qualities that, God knows, wouldn’t go amiss in the Middle East. Our man for Jerusalem-Ramallah-Gaza is: Steve Jobs. http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,697310,00.html