I have a pet theory about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - that it is to wider trends in world affairs what off-Broadway is to Broadway. A lot of stuff seems to get perfected there in miniature - from airline hijackings to suicide bombings, from building walls to keep others out to lone-wolf terrorism - and then moves to Broadway, to bigger stages.

So, I ask, what's playing off Broadway these days? It's a political drama that may offer a distant mirror on presidential politics in the United States. Israel has held two national elections since April, but the country is so perfectly divided that it still hasn't been able to produce a governing coalition.