Arabs

In one commercial, Arab pop star Nancy Ajram hands bottles of Coca-Cola to a young couple quarreling, and instantly, the two lovers make up as colorful hearts and flowers flood out from the bottles. In another, Haifa Wehbe, a model-turned-singer and Arab world sex symbol, turns heads as she walks confidently through a film set in a blue, figure-hugging dress, putting her cool can of Pepsi up against the face of a sweating technician.

The censors didn't quite know what to do with Lina Khoury's play about sex, rape, menopause and a visit to the gynecologist, but Islamic hard-liners were pretty specific: One wanted to stone the 32-year-old writer; others accused her of being an Israeli agent planting immoral ideas in the Arab world. The characters in "Women's Talk" share secrets only uttered when men aren't around.

A broadly representative elite of Israel's Arab minority has rejected the idea of Israel as a Jewish state and demanded a partnership in governing the country to ensure that Arab citizens get equal treatment and more control over their communities. In a manifesto that is stirring anger and soul-searching among Jews, Arab leaders have declared that Israel's 1.4 million Arab citizens are an indigenous group with collective rights, not just individual rights.

Busy in a tiny laboratory, Kamal Khawaled thinks he has figured out how to fight tooth decay: with a chemical gel and a small dose of electricity. He hopes to adapt the treatment to make teeth whiter. That may be a breakthrough, but Khawaled is part of what may be an even bolder experiment unfolding here in Nazareth's industrial zone. Officials and activists are trying to recruit Arabs like him into the biotechnology and high-tech industries, in which they have been sorely underrepresented.

He was shopping for cooking oil when Arab gunmen attacked his village. Adam Abdalla Omar, 70, tried to rescue his cow, but the invaders shot off his left arm. Now he lives in a displacement camp, so desperate and bored he worries he's losing his mind. It's a sadly familiar story in Darfur, except that Omar too is an Arab.

Arab leaders urged Israel to accept a 5-year-old peace plan that they say could end the decades-old Middle East conflict, calling for negotiations with the Jewish state as the annual Arab League summit drew to a close here Thursday. But key elements of the plan raise doubts about its chances for success.

Azmi Bishara, long a strident and influential voice of Israel's restive Arab minority and lately the object of a criminal investigation, resigned from parliament Sunday after leaving the country. The announcement was a setback for Israel's Arab community, whose declining confidence in the political system led many of its leaders in December to issue a manifesto rejecting the idea of Israel as a Jewish state and demanding a partnership in governing the country.

Israeli police said Wednesday that they were investigating whether an outspoken Arab member of parliament acted to help the nation's enemies during last summer's war with Hezbollah. Azmi Bishara is suspected of aiding the enemy, passing information to the enemy, contacting foreign agents and money laundering, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Police provided some details of the investigation after an Israeli court ruled that a gag order be partially lifted.

An Arab former legislator is suspected of committing treason and espionage by giving advice to Hezbollah guerrillas during the war in Lebanon last summer, Israeli police officials said Wednesday as they released new details of their investigation. Azmi Bishara, an outspoken advocate for Arab citizens of Israel and Palestinians, passed information to Hezbollah and encouraged the militant group to launch rockets deep into Israeli territory during the 34-day conflict, the police allege.

Police detained and questioned nine Saudi Arabian men at Whiteman Airport after someone called authorities and said the men looked suspicious. The men, tourists visiting the Los Angeles area, were at the small, private airport about 3 p.m. Friday to take helicopter rides, said Deputy Chief Michael Downing, head of the Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism bureau. Three of the men were in a helicopter touring downtown when police arrived.