Foreign desk: An Arab-Israeli Ray of Hope

Thirty prominent public figures from 15 Arab countries, some facing serious personal security issues, gathered in London last week to repudiate the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and demand their nations establish direct civil relations with the Jewish state, reports Jenni Frazer at the Jewish Journal. Attendees included Mohammed Anwar Sadat, a member of the Egyptian Parliament and a nephew of former President Anwar Sadat; former Kuwaiti Minister of Information Sami Abdul-Latif Al-Nisf; as well as other religious and political notables. The group recounted personal stories about good relations with Jews and deplored terrorism, brainwashing kids against Israel and politicizing Islam. Former US diplomat Dennis Ross called the participants courageous and a ray of hope. And while no government was officially involved, the views expressed are bound to resonate throughout the Middle East.

2020 watch: Ivy League Folly Is How Trump Wins

Saturdays Yale-Harvard football game was delayed for about an hour because of students protesting climate change on the field at the end of halftime, Mediaites John Ziegler fumes and it was just the kind of extreme political correctness that will get President Trump re-elected come next year. The protesters deliberately timed their action to waste maximum time and gain maximum media attention. Instead of cracking down, however, officials at Yale, where the game was held, treated the radicals with kid gloves, the kind their spoiled, affluent cohort has come to fully expect. And while voters wont remember this particular debacle when they step into the booth next year, Trumps political rocket ship is fueled by the extremely negative reaction Middle America has to political correctness. All the brilliant Yalies did was add a bit more gas to his tank.

City desk: Prohibit Parking To Save Space

While critics bemoan any change to street parking in New York City, Connor Harris argues in City Journal that the systems familiarity blinds residents to the fact that todays system is inefficient, anti-free-market and unfair. For example, the city could install hygienic municipal dumpsters on reallocated parking spots, preventing garbage from piling up on trash-collection days, or convert spots to bus lanes and loading zones. Also, cheap street parking exists by government fiat: Letting the free market decide what to do with a space could raise its price or convert it to more productive uses. Fact is, even without street parking, New Yorks drivers could easily afford the true cost of driving and non-drivers would be better off.

Culture critic: Dolly Doesnt Need Times Lectures

A recent New York Times profile of Dolly Parton sneered at the country-music legends supposed failure to make the slightest hint of a political statement which should win the paper some sort of prize for statements that are best at missing what is in plain sight, snarks the Walter Olson at Cato. Partons positive persona and enormous charitable contributions make a perfectly legitimate political statement, as one Twitter correspondent told Olson. Besides, Olson notes, shes written plenty of songs about poverty, about the thing between men and women and about responding to bad treatment with forgiveness and magnanimity. Or as another tweeter put it: Dolly Partons life is a political statement for those with eyes to see and ears to hear.

Brexit watch: A Collapsing Remain

Party loyalty has blurred in Britain since the Brexit referendum, The Spectators James Forsyth reports, but feelings about the referendum are almost stronger than they were on June 23, 2016, the day of the original vote, with pro-Leave and pro-Remain the strongest political forces in Britain. Remainers, however, have been unable to unite behind any one party or leader, and that lack of cohesion has proved fatal. Most damaging: Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn is determined to maintain ambiguity in Labours Brexit position, limiting a Remain alliance to minor parties. Unless Remainers can turn things around in the next three weeks, their cause will be lost.

Compiled by The Post Editorial Board

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A ray of Arab-Israeli hope and other commentary - New York Post