✪ Power play - The National Newspaper | M. Bazzi on Saudi-Syrian relations. Weirdly makes no mention of Lebanon.
✪ Bikya Masr (BikyaMasr) on Twitter | Report: Ayman Nour attacked by security and NDP thugs in Hurghada.
✪ Algérie-Maroc | Blog on Algerian-Moroccan relations.
✪ Un propagandiste intéressé du régime tunisien - Les blogs du Diplo | Alain Gresh takes down Antoine Sfeir over his apologia for the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia.
✪ “The State is an ostrich”: Algerian riots in the shadow of Power « The Moor Next Door | On the recent turmoil, and more generally the absence of a well-managed state in Algeria.
✪ Arms Smugglers Into Gaza Face a New Foe: Egypt – Forward.com | To Egypt's eternal shame!
✪ «الإخوان المسلمون» ينتصبون ضدّ بيونسي | جريدة الأخبار | The Muslim Brothers take on Beyoncé.
✪ Daily News Egypt -No Egyptian Films At The Cairo International Film Festival, Says Ciff President | er.... what?
✪ Reporters Sans Frontières | Tunisia: Election campaign impossible for opposition media
✪ Daily News Egypt - ‘Spinsters’ By Choice: Egypt’s Single Ladies Speak Out | About the Facebook group "Spinsters for Change".
✪ Michael Gerson - Michael Gerson on Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gomaa - washingtonpost.com | Rather lame column about the Mufti of Egypt makes no mention of his civil servant status.
✪ The Empire Lovers Strike Back « P U L S E | Fantastic text by Gore Vidal from the 1980s, about the Podhoretzes and the Israel lobby in the US.
✪ Israeli Exceptionalism: The Destabilizing Logic of Zionism « P U L S E | Excerpt from new book by M. Shahuid Alam.

✪ Corruption au Maghreb: Mode d’emploi | On corruption in the Maghreb, especially Algeria.
✪ Algeria-Watch: Diar Echems ne décolère pas | If you're interested in following the recent social unrest in Algiers, Algeria-Watch is the place to do it.
✪ Tunisie: une journaliste du "Monde" refoulée à l'aéroport de Tunis | Le Monde's Florence Beaugé barred from entering Tunisia after critical reporting and ahead of presidential elections on Oct. 25.
✪ Abu Khaldoun | New blog on things Middle Eastern.
✪ Le Figaro: Alger sur une poudrière | Riots in poor area of Algiers highlight undertow of social tensions.
✪ EgyptAir guards thwart attempted hijacking of flight from Istanbul to Cairo; suspect arrested - WGN |

A Sudanese man used a plastic knife from the in-flight meal to threaten flight attendants after the plane left Turkish airspace and demanded that the flight be diverted to Jerusalem, the official said. Guards on the flight were able to detain the man and no one was hurt, he said.

The flight landed safely at Cairo airport. The man was arrested and was being questioned by state security, the official said.

The Boeing aircraft was carrying 87 passengers, a Cairo police official said. He identified the suspect as Mohammed Hamad Nourain, 26, and said he used a passport with a phony name to board the flight.

The man told flight attendants he wanted to "liberate Jerusalem," the police official said.

Automatically posted links for November 27-28th:

• Critical writer jailed in Tunisia - On Monday, police in Sfax, Tunisia's second largest city, detained Slim Boukhdhir, a well-known blogger and contributor to the London-based Al-Quds Al Arabi.
• 'Aqoul: Hirsi Ali: Ideological Chameleon - Holy CRAP! Hirsi Ali's rightward shift
• tabsir.net » Al Qaeda?s generational split - Yemeni tactics for splitting jihadist groups
• Talking Points | National Security Network - Website of reality-based security types
• Le Monde.fr : Une vidéo-amateur contredit la version de la police sur l'accident de Villiers-le-Bel - Amateur video indicates initial shock of police car against motorbike not very violent, car was damaged with metal bars afterwards and police is lying about it
• WHO'S WHO OF PREZ CAMPAIGN SECURITY ADVISERS - New list of security / FP advisors to US presidential candidates, surprisingly does not include the more well-known rabid neocons in Rudy's list
• Hillary Clinton's advisers too gung-ho on Iraq war, critics say - Is Hillary Clinton the hawk masquerading as the dove?
• 'Not very good' Saddam spy gets 4 years - Yahoo! News - More examples of the terrible threat to the US that Saddam represented. Hmm, let me think, what other Middle Eastern country successfully infiltrated spies in critical national security institutions?
• Police say Paris rioters are armed as clashes escalate - Officials in Paris last night warned that rioters in the suburb of Villiers-le-Bel were armed with hunting rifles and air rifles as clashes with police continued to escalate.
• Boom fuels new Saudi spending spree | Business | The Guardian - Annual revenues of $165bn are funding six new cities to create jobs - but can it last?
• Cairo International Film Festival - Home Page - Schedules, events, etc. (apparently Morocco is focus of festival)
• In Annapolis, Conflict by Other Means by Robert Blecher and Mouin Rabbani - "As for the Annapolis meeting itself, it is being greeted with indifference, with few believing it will lead to either meaningful change in their daily lives or substantive progress toward the end of an Israeli occupation now in its fifth decade."