Weekend Reads: Top EITC Counties, Live Events at #Saban14, Why Washington Is Irrelevant, and More

New This Week

Americans’ opinions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A new public opinion poll from Shibley Telhami illuminates perceptions of the potential solutions, Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlements, and more.

Watch Vice President Biden speak today at #Saban14. The Vice President’s address at the 11th annual Saban Forum begins today at 1:00 PM EST and you can watch it live here. Visit the same page on Sunday at 11:30 AM EST for remarks by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (live in Washington) and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (via satellite).

Obama’s “culture of evidence” for reforming social programs. “One thing most people don’t know is that our [social] programs don’t work,” says Ron Haskins in the latest Brookings Cafeteria podcast on how to make government programs work.

How Washington made itself irrelevant. Bruce Katz says the nation’s capital “has become the site of photo ops, pep talks, news conferences and little else.”

After 2015, new goals for sustainable development. Homi Kharas and Christine Zhang look at lessons learned from the Millennium Development Goals since their inception in 2000 and recommend an adjusted course for the post-2015 development agenda.

7 of top 10 counties claiming EITC are in Mississippi. This fact and more revealed by an interactive map of what share of taxpayers claim the Earned Income Tax Credit in each U.S. county. See the full map here for data on the EITC in your county.

A year of combating “the defining challenge of our time.” Richard Reeves examines President Obama’s progress on his agenda to create greater opportunity for all Americans.

What our experts are reading

The New Yorker’s George Packer brilliantly profiles, and praises, “The Quiet German,” Angela Merkel. (@StrobeTalbott)

The Business of the Caliph: In-depth Zeit Online article on how ISIS finances itself. (@Will_McCants)

Feminism, cohabitation and how marriage was brought back from the brink. (@RichardVReeves)

Some interesting details in Dylan Byers’ new POLITICO piece on TNR’s demise, “Implosion of a Washington Institution.” (@ShadiHamid)