More unrest in Iran as President Ahmadinejad tightens his grip.

Mehdi Khalaji believes the Iranian election amounts to a military coup, and Amir Taheri agrees. Both men believe that Ahmadinejad represents the military and security forces of the Iranian state who have now taken control, even over the Mullahs. They pay lip service to the clerics, and they still seem to have respect for the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, but they are now in control of the apparatus of the state. If Khalaji and Taheri are correct, we may now be entering an even more dangerous period in the region.

Still, not everyone holds that view, or the belief that the election was rigged. One group of pollsters believes Ahmadinejad's support is real.

Netanyahu agrees to a Palestinian state, but one that is demilitarized. He also will not dismantle settlements, or agree to dividing Jerusalem, or agree to allow a 'right of return' for Palestinian refugees. He also demands that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish State. Since he will not surrender on these questions (and I believe he is backed by most Israelis on most of those points), and the Palestinians and the other Arab nations will not accept those conditions, then I am quite confident in predicting that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will not be solved by the chosen one now living in the White House (no shame in that, of course, since his failure will match the failures of all of his predecessors).

I suspect President Obama will also fail on health insurance reform since, as Robert J. Samuelson points out in this piece, he will not recognize the basis of the problem.