Keeping promises
No slogans, no empty rhetoric.Ibrahim Nafie takes stock of a new vote of confidence

Just one of his soldiers
The Arab League welcomes Barak and congratulates Israel; Gamil Mattar wonders what could be wrong

A new Middle East rationale?
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed discusses some of the key issues put forward by Netanyahu's downfall and Barak's victory in the Israeli elections

Mistakes and miscalculations
None of the NATO countries, especially the US, seems to have expected that the war in the Balkans would last this long. Hassan Nafaa examines the consequences

Close up
By Salama Ahmed Salama
Time will tell
Arab reactions to the changes on the Israeli political scene have var-ed from joy at Ne-anyahu's overthrow to a flurry of expectations that the way to peace is now open, based on the belief that the Israeli Labour Party under Ba-ak will surely have learned from Ne-anyahu's mistakes. --read on--

Naguib Mahfouz A mother's love I was lucky enough to get my fill of my mother's affec-ion and ten-erness, for God allowed her to live until I was in my fifties. During all the times when one really needs a mother, and the special quality of the love only she can give, my mother was there for me. --read on--

Soapbox
Taking liberties
Amir Salem

This week: Gaafar Numeiri