No more palliatives
Ibrahim Nafie analyses the disappointing responses of the US and EU to Palestinian initiatives to engineer a period of calm

The trouble with America
The year may have changed history, but some things haven't budged an inch. Osama El-Ghazali Harb wonders why, even when it asks the right questions, the US listens to the wrong answers

Overcoming the impasse
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed looks at some of the issues that should be addressed

Killing off the extras
Afghanistan has been the backdrop for America's latest real-life action movie, with the locals cast as extras. Will Israel play it again in Palestine? Azmi Bishara thinks not

The uses and abuses of comparison
Why set Egypt against South Korea? Roger Owen offers alternatives

Trying to spot the difference
Hassan Nafaa sees dangerous realignments in the post-11 September world

Editorial:
Peace on earth

Close up
What remains
By Salama Ahmed Salama

Soapbox:
Learning from fragments
By Abdel- Qader Yassin

Naguib Mahfouz
Love and after