Editing by Samia Nakhoul Barack Obama Economy

"What's less understood is that the political system favors theold over the young in this fateful transformation. We risk becoming a societythat invests in its past." http:// MONEY CULTURE: DANIEL GROSS: "Won't Anyone Give Bush a Job" (p. "To aggravate matters, many of the industriesin which ex-presidents make easy money are (a) doing poorly, and (b) based inthe Axis of Acela, the Washington-Boston corridor in which Bush hostility runsdeep."Even a book deal may not be so easy. With sales down"and Borders andBarnes & Noble contracting, 'there's likely to be a buyer's strike in the bookbusiness for up to six months,' says one former head of a well-known imprint.Moreover, the industry just isn't that interested in what the Bush innercircle is peddling." http:// Velez, 1-212-445-4078, , or Katherine Barna,1-212-445-4859, , or Grace Huh, 1-212-445-5831,, all of Newsweek. JERUSALEM (Reuters) - If U.S. President-elect Barack Obama had any plans for a swift push for Israeli-Palestinian peace, the bloody Gaza conflict has probably snuffed them out.

Barack Obama EconomyEven before Israel's 22-day onslaught on the Hamas-ruled enclave, U.S.-brokered talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had gone nowhere.President George W. Bush's lunge for progress in the last of his eight years in office solved none of the core issues in the 60-year-old struggle between two peoples claiming the same land.Political uncertainty in Israel, coupled with the bitter rift between the Hamas Islamists who control Gaza and Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the West Bank, sowed doubt that either side had the clout to negotiate peace, let alone deliver it.The Gaza offensive has only complicated the diplomatic challenge awaiting Obama when he takes over on Tuesday."Gaza is the new peace process," said Aaron David Miller, a former U.S. Livni has turned right and it might hurt her campaign if she continues in the peace process," said Dov Weissglass, former adviser to ex-premier Ariel Sharon."If Netanyahu is elected, I don't see the peace process emerging immediately," he added.Obama has pledged to engage early in Middle East peacemaking, but many foreign policy concerns are jostling for his attention, said Israeli security analyst Yossi Alpher."Obama still has to direct his diplomatic energies to Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq. Promoting an Israeli-Syrian deal, building on now-suspended indirect talks, might be a better option."It would still make sense for him to concentrate on Syria because of the payoff that gives him in Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and vis a vis people like Hamas," Alpher argued, referring to areas where Damascus could play a role more helpful to Washington."Imagine, after the blows Hamas has suffered, that a few months from now its leadership gets kicked out of Damascus."Past Israeli-Syrian talks have broken down over the extent of an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, captured in 1967, but Miller said a breakthrough remained possible."Once Gaza stabilizes, there may be a chance for an Israeli-Syrian agreement if Israelis, Syrians and Americans are ready to pay the price," he said.Palestinians have few options. Abbas's willingness for talks with Israel has brought statehood no closer.

Hamas's combat with the Jewish state has brought death and destruction to Gaza."Either Obama and international community take a step toward a serious peace process or the moderates in the Arab world will be marginalized and the fanatics will take over," said Nimmer Hammad, a senior aide to Abbas.But it is hard to see how any such process can make headway while the Palestinians are so divided, their quarrels now echoed in a regional contest pitting U.S. allies such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt against Washington's foes Iran and Syria.An Egyptian diplomat said a summit hosted by President Hosni Mubarak in Sharm el-Sheikh on Sunday aimed to bolster Abbas."The world is telling Abbas that he is the legitimate leader and that it wants to support him," the diplomat said.But Hamas leaders no longer recognize Abbas as president and say he has no authority to negotiate for Palestinians.Whatever losses Hamas has absorbed at the hands of Israeli forces, the Islamists have not lost their grip on Gaza."Hamas has suffered a punishing blow to its military capacity, as well as to its capacity to govern," Miller said."But it will survive as a powerful force in Gaza fueled by the new narrative and mythology of struggle that will emerge from the last three weeks of war."(Editing by Samia Nakhoul) Barack Obama Economy. Jan 18 (Reuters) - Following are security developments in Iraq at 1800 GMT on Sunday. denotes new or updated item BAGHDAD -A roadside bomb wounded three policemen in the Mashtal district of east Baghdad, police said. BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb targeting a lorry carrying pre-cast blast walls wounded two civilians in the Yarmouk district of west Baghdad, police said. MOSUL - Gunmen in a car killed two guards protecting a communications tower on Saturday in northeastern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

BAGHDAD - The deputy head of the U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrols programme was wounded when a bomb exploded near his house on Saturday in the al-Furat district of southwestern Baghdad, police said Five of his neighbours were wounded in the blast. BAGHDAD - A roadside bomb wounded three policemen on Saturday when it targeted their patrol near central Baghdad's Al-Shaab stadium, police said. BAGHDAD - A mortar round wounded two Iraqi soldiers on Saturday in the Jamiaa district of western Baghdad, police said.(Compiled by Aseel Kami; Editing by Andrew Dobbie). 18 /PRNewswire/ Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, aUnited Technologies Corp.