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MIDDLE EAST: Arabs assail new Israeli government

Perhaps no one summed up Arabs' disillusionment and frustration with the new Israeli governmentof  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman better than writer Talal Awkal in Thursday’s edition of the Palestinian daily newspaper Al-Ayyam. 

“If the outgoing government, which claimed it was committed to peace, continued building the racist Separation Wall, set up more military roadblocks, taking their number up to 650, sped up its efforts to Judaize Jerusalem, and expanded the construction of settlement housing units to unprecedented levels, what can we expect from a government of which Netanyahu and Lieberman constitute the main pillars?” Awkal wrote. 

Awkal was not alone in his wry, despondent assessment of the new Israeli team. 

Reactions from across the Arabic press show how recent statements made by Netanyahu and the controversial Lieberman have been taken as confirmation of what they describe as Israel’s expansionist agenda. 

MIDDLE EAST: Iran, Lebanon, Jordan upgrade air power

Iranian media quoted Air Force chief Brig. Gen. Ahmad Mighani as telling reporters that the Islamic Republic has set up a new military branch devoted exclusively to air defenses that will be in charge of guarding Iran's nuclear sites from potential Israeli or U.S. air attacks.

The branch, called the Name of the Holy Prophet Command, will draw together all the antiaircraft systems, surveillance gear, radar and missiles from the country's regular military branch as well as the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps under one umbrella with a mandate "to enhance and expand combat capabilities of the country's air defense unit," said Mighani, according to a report published on the website of Iran's English-language Press TV news channel.

"To counter the enemy's advanced military equipment, we should be equipped with state-of-the-art air defense technology," Mighani said.

JORDAN: Al Qaeda-linked group accused in attack on choir

An Al Qaeda-linked group was allegedly responsible for a violent attack on a Christian choir group in the Jordanian capital of Amman last July, authorities revealed Tuesday.

The incident took place in a downtown Amman neighborhood. A gunman opened fire on a bus full of tourists, wounding six, including four Lebanese musicians from a university choir.

After months of investigation, a group of 12 Jordanians of Palestinian origin were put on trial Tuesday on charges that included July's shooting.

Their indictment alleged that the group's mastermind, Shaker Khatib, was trained by a Lebanese offshoot of Osama bin Laden's organization.

JORDAN: Attitudes, sentiment shift away from U.S.

The change came about six months ago.

Suddenly, the Jordanian government wasn't as hostile as it used to be toward the Islamic Action Front, Jordan's branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Middle East's original Islamic fundamentalist group.

Then-intelligence chief Mohammad Dahabi met with the Action Front's parliamentary delegation. Members of the group were removed from official blacklists, said Zaki Bani Ershid, secretary general of the party.

Jordanian diplomats began reaching out to countries such as Syria and Qatar, rivals of U.S. allies in the region, as described in a story about Jordanian policy during the Gaza offensive in today's Los Angeles Times.

Ershid  speculates that Jordan's government was shifting course after feeling betrayed by the U.S., watching the collapse of the Arab-Israeli peace process and perceiving that Washington was willing to toss its friends under the bus.

Jordanian big shots were perturbed by what they saw as the U.S. betrayal of its allies. They watched Russia overwhelm staunchly pro-American Georgia and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah overpower the U.S.-backed March 14 coalition in Lebanon without Washington taking any decisive action. Jordan feared they also would be betrayed.

JORDAN: Egyptian rights activist barred from entering Jordan

Gamal Eid did not expect Jordanian authorities to hold a grudge for so long.

Two years after he criticized Jordan for its poor record on freedom of speech, the Egyptian human-rights activist was detained by Jordanian security officials as soon as he landed in Amman on Dec. 15.

Hours later, he was deported to Cairo.

Eid is the director of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information, or ANHRI.

He was invited to Jordan to attend a workshop for journalists held by the Swedish International Cooperation Agency, according to a statement posted on the ANHRI website Tuesday.

That was about two years after Eid openly criticized freedom of expression in a number of Middle Eastern countries, one of which was Jordan, as a speaker in a media conference in November 2006 in Amman, the statement said.

JORDAN: Controversial drama wins an Emmy award

An impossible romance between an Arab and an Israeli set against destruction and chaos was the main theme of a Jordanian-produced TV series that won a prestigious television award in New York this week.

"Al-Ijtiyah" (The invasion), which tells love stories at the time of the Israeli incursion into a West Bank city in 2002, became the first Arab production to win the International Emmy Award.

The series, produced at an estimated cost of $3 million and praised for its artistic and technical achievements, was named best new telenovela from among 40 nominees from 16 countries.

EGYPT: Stop the pirates

Worried that piracy could scare ships away from the Suez Canal, Egypt today held emergency talks with nations bordering the Red Sea on how stop brazen Somali gunmen from hijacking oil tankers and other vessels.

The Cairo meeting was called amid concerns that pirates were disrupting sea lanes and creating panic that might force shipping companies to avoid sailing the Red Sea region. Such a scenario would hurt the Egyptian economy, which relies heavily on fees vessels pay to pass through the Suez Canal.

Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki was quoted by the state news agency as saying: “All options are open.” He added that the country’s national security agencies will decide “whether a diplomatic and political solution would be preferred.”

Egyptian officials met with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Sudan and Jordan. The nations faced the prospect of how end a standoff with pirates who on Saturday captured a 1,000 foot tanker carrying $100-million worth of Saudi crude. The bandits anchored the ship off the Somali coast and are holding the ship’s crew hostage.

JORDAN: Queen Rania receives YouTube award

She may be queen of an ancient land. But this week word emerged that Queen Rania of Jordan was winner of a distinctively 21st century honor. She has been given YouTube's first-ever Visionary Award for launching an interactive online channel to combat stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arabs and Muslims, Jordan's Petra news agency reported.

The news was announced Thursday by YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley:

Queen Rania sets the standard for breaking down stereotypes and her YouTube videos are nothing short of inspirational. It is both a pleasure and an honor to present her with this much-deserved tribute.

The Visionary Award celebrates active and motivated users of YouTube whose aim is to utilize the service as an open platform to foster dialogue, highlight social and cultural issues and work for positive change in their communities and around the world.

JORDAN: Poet arrested for insulting Islam

A Jordanian poet who published a collection of his works has found himself in hot water. He's been accused of apostasy, a crime that could carry the death penalty in some parts of the Islamic world.

Islam Samhan, 27, was arrested by authorities today. He could be sentenced to up to three years in prison. The specific charge?  Harming Islam by incorporating Koranic imagery into his love poems.

According to The National, the Abu Dhabi daily, Samhan's work, "Slim Shadows," caught the attention of Jordanian clerics, including Jordan's Grand Mufti Noah Alqdah Samas, who called him an enemy of religion for comparing his loneliness to that of the prophet Youssef in the Koran.

Suddenly, Samhan's nightmare began. His book was banned and he began receiving death threats.