Al-Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East

The streets of Jordan’s capital, Amman, will be on lockdown on Friday as authorities gird for mass rival pro-government and Islamist opposition rallies, reports our partner Al-Hayat:

However, Jordanian authorities quickly announced a security plan that consists of shutting down the main streets of the capital as of Thursday [Nov. 29] evening, as well as those in the country’s most sensitive areas, including the vicinity of the al-Dakhiliyah roundabout, where the demonstrations will begin. This prompted the Islamist opposition to label the measures an attempt by the authorities to “reduce the number of participants in the demonstrations.”

Read the full story at Al-Monitor.

Above, an unfamiliar scene unfolded on the streets of Kuwait this week — as large crowds of protesters gathered to denounce the government’s decision to amend the electoral law. The crowd, which has been estimated between 100,000 and 200,000, marked the largest demonstration in Kuwait’s history. Read more from our Lebanese partner As-Safir.

Do not make us give up on the Egyptian revolution and the new regime.

“

—	Youssef Farhat, a prominent leader in Hamas, discussing ongoing protests against the Egyptian government’s demolition of tunnels that run between Gaza and the Sinai. The tunnels play a major political and economic role for Hamas.

The summer is over, and social protests have not returned to Israel. Still, the seeds of last year have not vanished, and the absense of any immediate results “does not mean that the message has not been delivered and received,” say the revolutionaries, who toured Israel for a week to observe and discuss the fate of the social-justice movement.

Al-Monitor’s Sophie Claudet sat down for this exclusive one-on-one with Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki. Watch him discuss the Salafi threat to Tunisian democracy in the wake of this month’s protests.

Al-Monitor’s video team talked with several Islamist protesters outside the US Embassy in Cairo in the midst of last week’s clashes. “What kind of democracy and free country would insult me and my prophet?” one protester asks (in one of the milder comments). The origins of the crude anti-Muslim video that set off the protests remain murky.

Protests are continuing over a hotly contested law in Jordan that opponents say would severely restrict the press — our tumblr talked about the SOPA-style blackout that Jordanian websites staged a few weeks back. This week 14 members of parliament walked out in protest over the debate about the bill. Our U.A.E. partner newspaper Al-Khaleej has more over at Al-Monitor.