Or Mr Barghouti could be elected in Mr Abbas's place but remain in prison as a diplomatic pawn, waiting for Israel to extract some public promises from him before his release.

ECONOMIST: The Palestinians look both divided and leaderless

Consumers have borrowed more money against the rising value of their homes, allowing them to extract some of their capital gains and so spend more than their income: the saving rate has fallen from 9% in 1990 to minus 2% last year.

ECONOMIST: Are Australia's economic batteries running low?

And not in some heroic fight to defend sovereign territory, not on some suicide mission to extract a prisoner or save a family in distress.

NPR: Sergeant Sorts Through War's Chaos in Letter Home