Security desk: Did Russia Play US on PA and Interpol?

Interpol’s vote to admit the “state of Palestine” as a full member came as a complete surprise to Washington — which thought it had a deal with Russia to keep the Palestinians out, reports the Jerusalem Post’s Michael Wilner. State Department diplomats thought Moscow had agreed to delay a vote on Palestinian membership as long as the United States got its ally Kosovo to withdraw its own bid. Yet when it was all over, “Palestine was in and Kosovo was still out.” One US official said Washington “basically paved the way” for Palestinian membership: “We were relying on this strategy that was flawed.”

Historian: The Dems’ Gerrymandering Obsession

Based on this week’s oral arguments, Democrats are celebrating the possibility that the US Supreme Court may set constitutional limits on political gerrymandering, which currently works to GOP advantage, says Jeff Greenfield at Politico. But “if Democrats think this is the key to their political woes, they are kidding themselves. What ails the party — at every level — goes far beyond alleged Republican skulduggery.” Recent Democratic losses “did not happen because of gerrymandering (or voter suppression, for that matter).” After all, “for the GOP to use its power to entrench its majorities, it had to win those majorities” in state legislatures “in the first place.” And it did so because the party and its conservative allies “poured resources into a workmanlike effort to win control over state politics.”



Urban critic: Geffen Hall Didn’t Need $500M Overhaul

Vulture’s Justin Davidson is “relieved” that Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic have pulled the plug on a “long-gestating and ever-costlier plan” to basically gut David Geffen Hall and “insert an entirely new building” inside its shell. The price tag was “$500 million and rising fast” and would have kept the hall dark “for two years and lengthening.” Yes, the hall is “acoustically lackluster and visually charmless” — but does it really have “half a billion dollars’ worth of problems”? He suspects not and suggests a more modest renovation: “knocking out the upper balcony, cutting down the number of seats, moving the stage out into the room (as already happens for Mostly Mozart) and fitting out the interior with sound-diffusing finishes.”



Moscow watch: Aging Putin’s Power Is Waning

Vladimir Putin turns 65 Saturday, the maximum retirement age for most Russian civil servants, notes Bloomberg’s Leonid Bershidsky. But though exempt from the law, “he reaches this milestone in a surprisingly vulnerable position.” Which wouldn’t be so obvious “if officials weren’t pointing to it with their clumsy actions” against anti-corruption activist and would-be presidential candidate Alexei Navalny — who keeps getting thrown into prison to deter his successful public rallies. Says Bershidsky: “That thousands of people consistently break with the tradition of passivity and brave the consequences of coming out in support of a lone opposition voice is a new phenomenon, something not seen during the Putin era.” Russia “is good at hibernating,” but “the country is beginning to stir.”



Conservative: UK Tories Have a Problem Called Theresa

British Prime Minister Theresa May endured “an extended and excruciating fiasco” during the Conservative Party’s conference this week, says Dominic Green at The Weekly Standard. First it came out that part of her speech was plagiarized from “The West Wing.” Plagued by a cold, she was waylaid by a coughing fit — but not before a professional prankster bounded onstage and presented her with the official form for firing an employee. This, suggests Green, “may be the defining image of her premiereship.” Indeed, she “is trapped within a never-ending impersonation of a leader . . . an amateur turned into a laughingstock by a professional comic.” It was “the most disastrous Conservative conference speech in living memory” and is a metaphor for how the Conservatives, “the default party of British government, are falling apart.”

— Compiled by Eric Fettmann