One afternoon, I decided to clear my mind and pay a brief visit to the Hagia Sophia, the monumental edifice in the ancient heart of the city. The "Holy Wisdom" is almost 1500 years old, and is -- at least in my amateur opinion -- the single greatest masterpiece of Byzantine architecture.

I caught up Harry Belafonte at a press conference at the Locarno Film Festival. Mr. Belafonte spoke eloquently about the very important role that art plays in politics, his roots in social activism, music and theatre, and about our common humanity.

Right now, Europe is having serious economic and social problems. But that's no reason to challenge the award of the Nobel Peace prize to the European Union. When it comes to handing out peace prizes, you can't ask for a lot more than traditional enemies beating their swords into ploughshares. And lions lying down with lambs. This Peace Prize is truly well-deserved.

I was in a meeting recently in which an MP accused the government and Stephen Harper of being "evil" and "the enemy." I have heard the Prime Minister use that language himself on more than one occasion. The hurling of insults across the aisle of Parliament has now become a pandemic -- no respect, no dignity, no results.

This is a space for both Israeli and Arab students to coexist at school and at home. The conversations at Project Harmony in Jerusalem usually start organically because, after all, the campers were born into the conflict: sixty years of failed peace treaties, losses on both sides, destruction of lives and heartbreaking stories.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas missed an opportunity to gain the confidence of Israel and international Jewry by recognizing Israel as a Jewish state. Instead, Abbas achieved the exact opposite. He took every opportunity to defame Israel and label it a criminal state on the world stage.