Future Palestinian Governance

"The hereditary Emperor is nearly dead and has been for many centuries. In the last moments of his dying coma he was locked in a stasis field which keeps him in a state of perpetual unchangingness. All is heirs are now long dead, and this means that without any drastic political upheaval, power has simply and effectively moved a rung or two down the ladder, and is now seen to be vested in a body that used to act simply as advisers to the Emperor - an elected governmental assembly headed by a President elected by that assembly. In fact it vests in no such place.

"The President in particular is very much a figurehead - he wields no real power whatsoever. He is apparently chosen by the government, but the qualities he is required to display are not those of leadership but those of finely judged outrage. For this reason the President is always a controversial choice, always an infuriating but fascinating character. His job is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. On those criteria Zaphod Beeblebrox is one of the most successful Presidents the Galaxy has ever had - he has already had two of his ten presidential years in prison for fraud. Very, very few people realize that the President and the Government have virtually no power at all, and of those few people only six know whence ultimate political power is wielded."

The situation in the Middle East is, of course, very serious, and one shouldn't joke about it. But after picking up Douglas Adams's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy hoping to avoid real news and finding this passage, I couldn't resist =)