Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during the session 'Crisis, Community and Leadership' at the Annual Meeting 2009 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Photo: wiki commons.

From Saudi Arabia to London, the UAE to Lebanon, Arab newspapers have portrayed the creation of  Israel’s new unity government, established this week under the leadership of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as a prelude to war.

Netanyahu is forming a war government,” the London based al-Quds al-Arabi’s chose for its headline in a piece about the new Israeli government. “No one knows what goes on through the mind of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on many regional issues these days. One can predict that this man is scheming and planning wars after murdering the peace process with the settlement policy in the occupied Arab territories,” wrote the paper.

In Saudi Arabia, where concerns over an Iranian nuclear weapon are high due to the rival nations’ sectarian divide between Shiite (Iran) and Sunni (Saudi Arabia) leaderships, the al-Madina newspaper chose “Israel prepares for war” as its headline on the matter.

Netanyahu is “concerned about his status in Israeli history and wants to be remembered as the leader who destroyed the Iranian nuclear program and solidified Israel’s nuclear monopoly in the region,” al-Madina writes.

In Lebanon, the As-Safir newspaper, in an article entitled “Israeli Recklessness”, argues that the newly formed government in Jerusalem is leading the entire world to estimate that “war is looming”.