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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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. » Read more

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." » Read more

IDF soldier suspected of killing Palestinian still hasn't been charged ATFP World Press Roundup Article from Haaretz by Anshel Pfeffer - August 31, 2009 - 12:00am A Military Police investigation into a soldier's killing of a Palestinian near Hebron in January has been going on for seven and a half months, and there is still no end in sight. Yet the sector commander has been giving briefings for the past few months based on his own inquiry into the incident, which he describes as "a serious failure in moral and professional terms." » Read more