Former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is indicted on three counts of corruption. The Israeli Air Forces launches an air strike on Gaza. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he will not participate in any peace talks until Israel agrees to a full settlement freeze, while EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana says Israel and the US are working on the technical aspects of a deal and may agree by mid-September. Hamas has hinted that Fatah officials who were in the West Bank for the party congress might not be allowed reentry to Gaza. Israel opens all three border crossings with Gaza today for commercial shipments and humanitarian aid.

Israel may soon agree on settlement freeze: Solana
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Agence France Presse (AFP)
August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Israel may agree to a West Bank settlement freeze by mid-September and is discussing the technical aspects of a deal with the United States, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday. Solana also said after meeting the Israeli premier that a summit between the US, Israeli and Palestinian leaders to relaunch the dormant peace process could take place on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly at the end of September.

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Israeli-Arab indicted for Ashkenazi plot
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Jerusalem Post
by Yaakov Katz - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Hizbullah recruited an Israeli-Arab and ordered him to collect intelligence on IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi ahead of plans to assassinate him to avenge the death of the guerrilla group's military leader Imad Mughniyeh. On Monday, an indictment was filed at the Petah Tikva District Court against Rawi Sultani, a 23-year-old Israeli-Arab from the town of Tira, alleging that he was recruited by Hizbullah in the summer of 2008 when he traveled to Morocco to attend a Balad Party summer camp.

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The case against boycott
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Uri Avnery - (Opinion) August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

How much did the boycott of South Africa actually contribute to the fall of the racist regime? This week I talked with Desmond Tutu about this question, which has been on my mind for a long time.

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Editorial: Not the way to peace
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
(Editorial) August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

When Israeli officials this week meet US Middle East envoy George Mitchell, when President Barack Obama unveils his Middle East peace plan at the UN in New York next month, and when Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas hold a possible first encounter on the sidelines of the General Assembly, the common denominator issue will be Israeli settlement building. The Jewish outposts have for decades been one of the biggest obstacles in the way of a settlement but recently the issue has taken on a new dimension.

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Peace will help keep Obama popular
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from The Daily Star
by Steven W. Barnes, Nadia Bilbassy - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Two international opinion polls released this summer indicate that global views toward the US are improving – in no small part due to the election of Barack Obama as president. The polls, by the Pew Global Attitudes Project and worldpublicopinion.org, both stress that Obama is viewed positively in most of the countries surveyed, but questions remain in the Middle East about the direction of US policies.

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Hamas vows to continue struggle
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Arab News
by Abdul Jalil Mustafa - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

The head of Hamas’ political bureau, Khaled Meshaal, pledged on Sunday his movement would continue its struggle for “the liberation of Palestine.” Meshaal was addressing an audience at a tent set up in Sweileh, where he received condolences over the death of his father, Abdul Rahim Meshaal, who was buried on Saturday. “Hamas, which has a political vision, sticks to the land, Jerusalem, the right of return (for Palestinian refugees) and resistance as a way for the liberation of Palestine as well as to the political and diplomatic equations and other spheres of work,” Meshaal said.

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Hamas slams UN over 'Holocaust classes' in Gaza
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Reuters
August 30, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas condemned the United Nations on Sunday, saying it planned to teach Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip about the Holocaust – but the UN agency which runs schools in the enclave would not confirm any change. Branding the Nazi genocide of the Jews "a lie invented by the Zionists", the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza Strip wrote in an open letter to a senior UN official that he should withdraw plans for a new history book in UN schools.

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Report: Mashaal promised release of Jordanians in Shalit deal
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Ynetnews
by Roee Nahmias - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am

Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal has promised to include the release of Jordanian prisoners held in Israeli prisons as part of a prisoner exchange deal meant to secure the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit, Jordanian newspaper al-Arab al-Yawm quoted secretary of the National Committee for Jordanian Prisoners and Missing in Israeli Jails as saying. The matter of Jordanian prisoners has surfaced in the past in talks for a Shalit deal as part of Hamas' demands of prisoners to be released in the second phase of the agreement.

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Freeze in Jerusalem too
ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz
by Akiva Eldar - (Opinion) August 30, 2009 - 12:00am

If there is any truth in the reports that came out of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Europe - that the United States agreed Israel can go on building in East Jerusalem - the headlines should have read "Obama has pulled out of the Middle East peace process."

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