The costs of rejection
In his own words, Ariel Sharon is seeking surrender. What hope, then, for peace, asks Ibrahim Nafie

Bureaucratic masks
Train passengers hastily judged to have incinerated themselves; an inability to take decisions because decisions imply responsibility; the commercialisation of political life: Nabil Abdel-Fattah draws some necessary connections

Swapping normalisation for withdrawal
Mohamed Sid-Ahmed asks whether total Arab normalisation of relations with Israel in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines can become the basis for a final Middle East settlement

The politics of genes
Jews and Palestinians share a very similar HLA genetic pool: hardly surprising, but the outcry that greeted the publication of this research is unprecedented, writes Moheb Costandi

Brooking no dissent
Washington has cowed Russia, stationed its troops in Central Asia and the Caucasus, and is now "sorting out" the Middle East. Gamil Mattar on six months of Cheney triumphant

Editorial:
Not learning his lesson

Reflections
This is the way the world ends
By Hani Shukrallah

Close up
Risky posturing
By Salama Ahmed Salama

Soapbox:
Evading reality
By Magdi Mehanna

Naguib Mahfouz
Evading peace

This week: Prince Abdullah