JORDAN

The Jordan Times, Amman, March 26: Syria's move to ask the upcoming Arab League summit to reactivate the Arab economic boycott of Israel in the hopes to bring the Jewish state to its knees might look good on paper. But in reality, few doubt that the Syrain-led crusade will succeed.
True, Arab leaders from east to west are under pressure from their populations to take tangible decisions against Israel, especially after hard-liner Ariel Sharon was elected prime minister.
Face-saving formulas: But instead of looking for halfhearted, face-saving formulas that talk about reactivating the economic boycott, they should engage in a frank discussion and clearly decide if they want to continue in their commitment to peace as their strategic option.
Everyone knows that any future decision on a boycott will be non-binding for Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries to have singed peace treaties that have paved the way for wide-ranging bilateral exchanges, including trade and investments.
Instead of wasting energies to score public relations gains, Arabs would be better off if they decided once and for all on practical measures to support the Palestinians through offering solid financial and political support.
SINGAPORE
Straits Times, Singapore, March 26: U.S. President George W. Bush is a well-scheduled man. January was spent flirting with the Democrats and giving them all nicknames; February was spent promoting his tax-cut plan; and March has been Asia month, as he met the leaders of Japan, South Korea and China. Bush's handlers call this kind of scheduling "staying on message" -- meaning, they do not want him to say or do more than one thing at a time, for that would only give the media too much to chew on and confuse the public, which has the attention span of a gnat, they believe.
There is much to be said for this strategy. For one thing, it has made for a disciplined White House. Everyone knows the president says what he means, and means what he says, if for no other reason because he says so little.
Stumble: As it is, the administration has stumbled on at least two occasions in recent months -- on Iraqi sanctions and negotiations with North Korea -- because White House political operatives intervened to reverse promising policy feelers emanating from elsewhere in the administration.
On both occasions, the victim was Secretary of State Colin Powell, who had indicated a willingness to change Iraqi sanctions policy and declared that the U.S. would continue to negotiate seriously with North Korea, only to have his pronouncements summarily contradicted by the White House.
Obviously, when it came to a contest between good policy and good politics, the latter won. Bush stayed on message all right -- "those North Koreans are crazy;" "Saddam must go;" "we need missile defenses against North Korea;" "we'll bomb Saddam again if he misbehaves" -- but it is doubtful if he made any good policy in the process.
The new administration has yet to show it knows the difference between complexities born of simplifications and those which arise from a nuanced understanding of the world.
BRITAIN
Daily Telegraph, London, March 27: In the North in particular, country people now feel they are dealing, not with an ordinary disease, but with an almost biblical plague.
The latest outbreak challenges many epidemiological assumptions about foot and mouth. It is now perfectly possible that the horror of what is happening in Devon and Cumbria will spread to new shires. The current policy of selective quarantine and culling has not succeeded in containing the epidemic. There can no longer be any doubt that foot and mouth is out of control. Only now, it seems, are ministers beginning to understand the magnitude of the crisis.
Early elections: There are two explanations for the extraordinary lethargy from which Labor is trying to shake itself free. First, ministers have little interest in the countryside. Second, and far more seriously, ministers were initially determined to play down the disease because they did not want to jeopardize an early general election.
For weeks, Labor refused to recognize the scale of the problem, dismissing media reports as some kind of Tory plot to delay the poll. At every stage, its instinct has been to avoid measures that might reflect a sense of crisis. Even if the election is now delayed, the damage to Labor's image has been done: at a moment of national emergency, ministers put party before country.