OLMERT TO GO TO TRIAL

Former Israeli premier Olmert to stand trial Mon Sep 14, 7:40 am ET

JERUSALEM – Israel's justice ministry says the corruption trial of former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will begin on Sept. 29 in Jerusalem.Olmert was indicted last month for illegally accepting funds from an American supporter and double-billing Jewish groups for trips abroad. Olmert has denied any wrongdoing.The charges, stemming from when he was Jerusalem's mayor and later as a Cabinet minister, emerged when Olmert was still prime minister. He eventually resigned the premiership, to which he was elected in 2006.The 63-year-old Olmert left politics when Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister last March.

Egypt destroys 10 Gaza smuggling tunnels Mon Sep 14, 7:20 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Egyptian security forces destroyed 10 tunnels used to smuggle contraband to the besieged Gaza Strip after a tip-off from a runner arrested last week, a security official said on Monday.The tunnels were found north of the Egyptian border town of Rafah late on Sunday after Mohammed al-Shaer gave details of their location, the official told AFP, adding that the tunnels were immediately destroyed.Shaer was arrested last week at the Rafah border crossing as he tried to enter Gaza on false documents.He was one of the most wanted smugglers in the area and could provide vital information on smuggling networks operating in Egypt, the official said.The Gaza Strip, under a tight blockade since Islamist Hamas seized power in the enclave in 2007, relies on international aid and products smuggled through a network of tunnels linking it to Egypt.The tunnels are also used to send in weapons.Egypt, under pressure from Israel and the United States, has taken robust measures to crack down on the smuggling.

Abbas's Fatah backs Egypt election delay proposal By Mohammed Assadi – Mon Sep 14, 12:59 am ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction Monday said it had accepted an Egyptian proposal to end a rift with Islamist Hamas and would delay presidential and parliamentary elections due in January.Egypt is trying to reconcile rival factions Fatah and Islamist Hamas and last week proposed holding elections during the first half of 2010 to allow more time to work out a power-sharing deal between the two rival groups.Fatah's acceptance of the delay now puts the onus on Hamas which won the 2006 parliamentary election and a year later took over the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to Abbas in a brief civil war.

Fatah controls the West Bank and Hamas rules Gaza, territory that Palestinians want for a future state culminating from peace negotiations with Israel.Presidential and parliamentary elections are slated for January 25 but it remains unclear how they could take place with the Palestinian population split in two territories run by rival administrations that do not recognize one another.We have decided to accept the Egyptian proposal, including holding the elections during the first half of next year and no later than this date,said Abbas Zaki, a member of Fatah's Central Committee, the group's executive body.Fatah made the announcement early Monday after its Central Committee convened a late-night meeting Sunday chaired by Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.Fatah officials said that Hamas had told Fatah during past round of talks that it prefers an extended delay to elections.Nabil Shaath, another Fatah official, said that the group did not mind a delay but there should be a specific date and not to leave the matter open as if we do then it could be postponed again.Hamas has said it would state its position regarding the Egyptian proposal after the Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Fitr due next week.The Fatah-dominated Palestine Liberation Organization's executive committee had already submitted the response to Egypt, Aahmad Majdalani, a PLO member, told Reuters.Abbas, who has Western backing, had said he would hold the elections on time with or without a deal with his Hamas rivals. Hamas has threatened to block the ballot if Abbas proceeds with the plan.Egypt's mediation efforts for a unity deal between Hamas and Fatah have so far shown no sign of progress in finding a formula for power-sharing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.The Egyptian proposal stipulates that most Hamas political activists jailed by Fatah-led forces in the West Bank and Fatah men held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip would be released after a deal is reached. Hamas wants its men freed before an accord.(Editing by Ori Lewis and Michael Roddy)

Militant group claims rocket attacks on Israel Sun Sep 13, 9:08 pm ET

DUBAI (Reuters) – A militant group claiming links to al Qaeda said on Monday it was behind the firing of rockets into northern Israel last week.Your brothers fired two Katyusha rockets from south Lebanon which landed in the Naharia settlement in the north of occupied Palestine,a statement on web sites used by militants said.It cited Israel's blockade of the Palestinian enclave of Gaza and preventing worshippers praying at the Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem as the reasons for the action.The statement was signed by the Ziad al-Jarrah division of the Abdullah Azzam Brigades and the posting's headline linked the group to Sunni Muslim militant network al Qaeda.Ziad al-Jarrah, a Lebanese militant, was one of the group of 19 who carried out the September 11 attacks of 2001 in the United States. Abdullah Azzam was a preacher close to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan.It was not possible to verify the claim. A group using the name Abdullah Azzam Brigades said it carried out deadly bombings at the Egyptian resort of Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005.Israel retaliated to the rocket attack by firing shells. No one was injured on either side.
The Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, which fought a 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.
(Editing by Michael Roddy)

West Bank growth depends on easing restrictions: IMF by Joseph Krauss – Sun Sep 13, 4:45 pm ET

JERUSALEM (AFP) – The West Bank economy is recovering but further growth will depend on Israel lifting more restrictions in the occupied territory, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Sunday.The West Bank economy will likely post a seven-percent growth rate in 2009 on the back of Palestinian reforms and the lifting of some Israeli barriers, the IMF said in a report to be presented to international donors later this month.Provided remaining restrictions in the West Bank are lifted in the remainder of the year, real GDP in the West Bank is projected to rise by about seven percent in 2009, the report said.It added that this would be the first substantial increase in living standards since 2005.The report cautions however that even in such an optimistic scenario it would take several years for the West Bank economy to recover from the closures put in place following the outbreak of the 2000 Palestinian uprising.Even in this scenario, real income per capita in 2012 would still be around 20 percent below its level in 2000,the report said, adding that unemployment would be slightly higher in 2012 than it was before the intifada.The relaxation of restrictions so far represents a breathing space that has allowed GDP to recover from a very low base, given the longstanding restrictions since 2000, said Oussama Kanaan, the head of the IMF's mission to the West Bank and Gaza and one of the authors of the report.It cannot provide the underpinnings for sustainable growth over the medium and long term,he added, in remarks accompanying the report's release.

Meanwhile, the economic outlook for the Gaza Strip, which has been under a closure regime imposed by Israel and Egypt since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power in June 2007, remains dire.The IMF predicted a further decline in real GDP per capita despite a modest overall growth rate of one percent.And unemployment in the first half of 2009 remained high, at 18 percent in the West Bank and 37 percent in Gaza, though it was slightly down from 2008.The IMF said donors would have to provide the Palestinian Authority with 1.5 billion dollars (one billion euros) of assistance to finance the 2009-2010 budget deficit, including 1.1 billion dollars for public investment and reconstruction.The IMF released similar figures in the middle of July, but the latest report is more comprehensive, and will be presented to the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) for assistance to the Palestinians on September 22.

The group of international donors will meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly amid international US-led efforts to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which was suspended at the turn of the year.The two sides last relaunched talks in November 2007 but the process was suspended during Israel's three-week offensive in Gaza launched on December 27 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.Israel's right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to pursue economic peace with the Palestinians since taking office on March 31.But he has refused demands from the United States, the European Union and the Palestinians for a complete freeze of settlement growth in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.And the two sides remain deeply divided on the core issues of the conflict, including borders, Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

Netanyahu: Israel won't hold back when attacked By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer – Sun Sep 13, 7:48 am ET

JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon on Sunday that Israel will not hold back when attacked and holds the Lebanese government responsible for any assault on his country.Netanyahu delivered the warning after two rockets fired from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday. Israel responded immediately with artillery fire, and the exchange ratcheted up persisting tensions between the two countries.We view this very gravely,Netanyahu told his Cabinet.We will not hold back when Israeli territory comes under fire, and will not reconcile ourselves to missile fire or any other form of terror directed at Israeli citizens.It was not immediately known who fired the rockets Friday. But radical Palestinian factions in Lebanon have been blamed in four firings at Israel this year.The Israel-Lebanon border has been tense since Israel mounted a monthlong war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas in the summer of 2006. More than 1,200 people in Lebanon and 160 Israelis died in that conflict, which ended in a United Nations-brokered truce.On Sunday, Netanyahu put the onus of maintaining the cease-fire squarely on the shoulders of the Lebanese government.We see it responsible for all these violations and hostilities directed at our territory that originate from Lebanese soil,he said.Hezbollah has a large rocket arsenal, but is not believed to have used them against Israel since the 2006 fighting. It has denied involvement in previous rocket attacks on Israel.But friction between Israel and Hezbollah has escalated as Lebanese politicians wrangle over the formation of a new government. The Hezbollah-led opposition would likely be a part of that cabinet.In mid-July, a suspected Hezbollah arms depot exploded near the Israeli border. Israel said this was proof the group was rearming and stashing weapons in populated villages.Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported Sunday that the U.N. force in Lebanon, which was beefed up significantly after the war to monitor the border, had been warned of a possible attack 10 days earlier.The U.N. force relayed this information to the Lebanese army two days before the attack, the report said.A spokesman for the U.N. force, Milos Strugar, said an investigation under way is pointing in the direction of some extremist groups.He did not elaborate.

Netanyahu and Mubarak meet on reviving peace talks by Samer Al-atrush – Sun Sep 13, 1:16 am ET

CAIRO (AFP) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak meet on Sunday in a bid to revive peace talks with the Palestinians ahead of a possible three-way meeting later this month.Netanyahu's visit, his second since May, will coincide with the arrival of US Middle East envoy George Mitchell in the region as Washington continues its push to get the peace process back on track.

Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank, which defies US pressure and Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas's condition for resuming talks, is likely to top the agenda in Cairo.The two leaders are also expected to discuss the exchange of an Israeli soldier held by the Islamist movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip for more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

The United States has sought to fast-track a peace process that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. It has floated the possibility of hosting a meeting between Netanyahu and Abbas on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, according to Israeli President Shimon Peres.But both sides have rebuffed the US call for goodwill gestures that would see a freeze to settlement construction in return for Arab states beginning to normalise ties with Israel.Arab countries have said normalisation will only come after substantive peace talks, or a settlement to the conflict, and Abbas insists that he will not meet Netanyahu before a complete end to settlement construction.Earlier this month, Netanyahu authorised the construction of 455 new homes in West Bank settlements, prompting Abbas to say that there was no point in attending a summit with him.Washington criticised the settlement expansion as "inconsistent" with the peace process, but has also said it does not consider a settlement freeze a condition for peace talks to resume.Israel has said it would weigh demands for a freeze in settlement construction in the West Bank. However, it stresses that this would be time-limited, would not include the newly authorised construction, nor the 2,500 homes currently being built, and would also exclude occupied east Jerusalem.Israeli media reported last week that Netanyahu said he believed he would reach a deal on settlements with the United States when Mitchell arrived.If a deal is secured, it would place pressure on Abbas to retreat from his calls for an immediate freeze of all settlement construction before resuming negotiations.

Egypt has been mediating between rival Palestinian factions Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas, which rules the besieged Gaza Strip which the Israeli military attacked at the turn of the year.It has been Israel's main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but the neighbours remain at odds over the peace process.Cairo has also acted as a mediator in talks between Hamas and Israel on a possible deal to end the crippling Gaza blockade and free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier captured by Palestinian militants more than three years ago.Efforts to reach a deal have reportedly intensified in the past month, but a senior Hamas official in Damascus, where the group's leadership is exiled, on Saturday downplayed reports of an imminent agreement.

US envoy arrives in Israel for talks Sat Sep 12, 5:28 pm ET

JERUSALEM – U.S. Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell is in Israel to try and kick start Israeli-Palestinian talks before the two sides meet at the U.N. later this month.A spokesman for the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem said Mitchell arrived in Israel Saturday night. He is set to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders next week.

Peace talks broke down in December after Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza to stop militants firing rockets on southern Israeli towns.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he is willing to renew talks. The Palestinians insist Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem end before negotiations begin.The sides are expected to announce a renewal of talks at the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 23.

Israel warns Lebanon on rockets but sees calm for now Sat Sep 12, 6:03 am ET

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel said on Saturday it viewed rockets fired from Lebanon as an isolated incident but would be ready to take massive action if any border violence continued.Speaking on Israel Radio a day after two rockets struck northern Israel in the first such attack in seven months but causing no injury, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Israel expected United Nations peacekeepers and Lebanon to prevent further attacks.The shootings raised tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Israel retaliated swiftly for the rockets by firing a dozen artillery rounds at Lebanon, with no injuries reported. Ayalon said no further military action was called for now and that Israel saw the incident as an isolated occurrence.There's no interest in escalating the situation,Ayalon said.We must make clear that if Israel is forced, if the quiet is disrupted, Israel will know to restore calm, even if it is forced to take massive action.Ayalon accused Lebanon of failing to prevent smuggling of weapons by Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement, but stopped short of blaming the group for the rockets, for which no group has as yet claimed responsibility.Both Washington and the United Nations condemned the violence and urged continued adherence to a 2006 truce that ended a month-long war between Israel and Hezbollah.P.J. Crowley, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said Friday the rocket fire was in clear violation of that ceasefire and showed the urgent need to bring arms in Lebanon under control of the state.United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged both sides, in a statement, to exercise restraint and said U.N. peacekeeping troops known as UNIFIL were investigating the circumstances of the incident.(Writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan; Editing by Ralph Boulton)

Mitchell heads to Israel, other Mideast nations Fri Sep 11, 4:33 pm ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. special envoy George Mitchell leaves on Friday to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt as he seeks to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, the State Department said.Mitchell has been trying to put together a package under which Israel would freeze settlement construction and Arab nations would make gestures toward recognizing the Jewish state as a precursor to the resumption of peace talks.The envoy hopes to secure a deal for a possible meeting at the U.N. General Assembly this month among Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S. President Barack Obama.U.S. officials have declined to speculate on the odds of that occurring or of peace talks, which have been stalled since December, resuming.We are in discussions. Where they lead and how quickly, we'll see, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters as he announced Mitchell's travel.The spokesman said Mitchell was expected to visit Jordan, Lebanon and Egypt after his talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials but he declined to specify his exact travel plans.

Netanyahu's refusal so far to stop settlement activity has led to a rare Israeli diplomatic rift with Washington, and the issue of ceasing construction is likely to be among the most difficult on Mitchell's trip.Israel approved on Monday the building of 455 settler homes in the West Bank, a move that drew Palestinian protests and rare U.S. criticism but that could pave the way for the construction moratorium sought by Washington.Some 500,000 Israelis live in settlements in the West Bank, land which Israel captured in a 1967 war and Palestinians seek for a state, and Arab East Jerusalem, which Israel has annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognized internationally.Palestinians, who number about three million in the West Bank, say settlements deprive them of land for a viable state.(Editing by Philip Barbara)

US strongly condemns rocket attack on Israel Fri Sep 11, 2:27 pm ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States strongly condemned a rocket attack Friday on Israel from southern Lebanon, a US State Department spokesman said.We strongly condemn these attacks which were in clear violation of the cessation of hostilities called for in UNSC (UN Security Council) resolution 1701,said Assistant Secretary of State PJ Crowley.He said the incident highlights the urgent need to put arms in Lebanon under control of the state and the need for the international community to remain fully committed on supporting UNIFIL which is the UN mission in Lebanon.

Several rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel on Friday, prompting Israel to fire artillery rounds across the border in retaliation, the Israeli military said.The Lebanese army said the village of Al-Qlaileh was hit and ambulances were rushed from the port city of Tyre, nine kilometres (five miles) away.

A Lebanese security official said two rockets were fired earlier from the village, 15kilometres (10 miles) from the border. No one immediately claimed responsibility.In Israel, police said they found debris from Katyusha rockets near the northern city of Nahariya, while witnesses said they heard explosions.

Rockets hit Israel from Lebanon, no casualties Fri Sep 11, 1:27 pm ET

Tire, Lebanon (Reuters) – At least two rockets from Lebanon struck northern Israel on Friday, prompting Israeli artillery to shell the fruit groves from which they were fired, security officials on both sides of the border said.No casualties were reported by Israeli police, who said two rockets landed. Lebanese security sources, who reported at least two outgoing missiles and 15 incoming Israeli shells, did not say who might have fired the rockets.An Israeli military spokesman confirmed that Israel fired about a dozen artillery rounds in response to several rockets.The Israeli army holds the Lebanese government responsible for preventing such attacks, the spokesman said.It was the first time since February that rockets had been fired from Lebanon into Israel, raising tensions along a border that remains volatile three years after a war between the Jewish state and Hezbollah Islamist guerrillas in Lebanon.Occasional salvoes since then have been blamed by Israeli, Lebanese and U.N. peacekeeping forces in the area largely on fringe militant groups rather than on Hezbollah, the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite movement which remains a powerful force in Lebanon, especially in the south.United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the rocket fire and urged both sides to exercise restraint, a statement issued by a spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, said.

U.N. peacekeeping troops known as UNIFIL were investigating the circumstances of the incident,Ban's statement said. He called on the parties to fully adhere to a truce the world body had brokered in 2006 to end their month-long war.During Israel's offensive against Hamas Islamists in the Gaza Strip in January, Hezbollah denied responsibility for several rockets fired from Lebanon. Security officials have said small groups active among Palestinian refugees or with links to al Qaeda were more likely to have mounted the attacks.(Reporting by Nadim Ladki and Tom Perry in Beirut and Ori Lewis and Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jersualem; writing by Alastair Macdonald; editing by Andrew Roche)

Israel returns fire after rocket attack from Lebanon Fri Sep 11, 12:43 pm ET

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AFP) – Several rockets fired from southern Lebanon slammed into Israel on Friday triggering retaliatory artillery fire across the border, the Israeli military said.Several rockets hit western Galilee. They did not cause any casualties,a military spokesman told AFP.We responded by firing 12 to 15 artillery shells towards the source of the fire,he said.The Lebanese army said the village of Al-Qlaileh was hit and ambulances were rushed from the port city of Tyre, nine kilometres (five miles) away.A Lebanese security official said two rockets were fired earlier from the village, 15 kilometres (10 miles) from the border. No one immediately claimed responsibility.Troops and UN peacekeepers later found the wooden platforms from which the rockets were fired, the official said.In Israel, police said they found debris from Katyusha rockets near the northern city of Nahariya, while witnesses said they heard explosions.The IDF (Israel military) considers the Lebanese government and Lebanese military as accountable to prevent such attacks," the spokesman added.The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said that together with the Lebanese armed forces, it deployed additional troops in the area to prevent an escalation.UNIFIL is in contact with both sides urging them to exercise maximum restraint, uphold the cessation of hostilities and avoid taking steps which could lead to further escalation,it said in a statement.It said calm returned to the area following the incident, adding that it had no report of casualties on either side.

In February, Israeli artillery bombarded Al-Qlaileh in response to similar rocket fire. There were no casualties on the Lebanese side while a few Israelis were lightly wounded.The Shiite militant group Hezbollah, which fought a devastating 34-day war with Israel in 2006 and has its stronghold in the south, denied responsibility for the February attack.In the 2006 conflict, more than 1,200 people were killed in Lebanon, most of them civilians, along with 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.The war started after two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hezbollah fighters in a deadly cross-border raid.It ended with a ceasefire resolution adopted by the UN Security Council that demanded the disarming of all militant groups in Lebanon, including Hezbollah, and an end to arms smuggling across its borders.

Hezbollah has had no declared arsenal in south Lebanon since 2006 but Israel says the movement has tripled its hoard of weapons and has 42,000 rockets capable of reaching locations in the centre of the Jewish state.Israel warned last month that the Lebanese government as a whole would be blamed for any attack from its territory if the militant group were part of the new government to be formed after June elections. The United States, like Israel, blacklists the Iranian-backed Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Most European governments maintain contacts with its political wing.Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said last month that the militia was ready for any confrontation with Israel, but at the same time ruled out any war in the near future.

Explosions heard, rocket found in north Israel Fri Sep 11, 9:29 am ET

KIRYAT SHMONA, Israel (AFP) – Remnants of a Katyusha rocket were found in northern Israel on Friday, police said, after a security official said two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon.Residents of northern Israel said they heard explosions.Debris from at least one Katyusha rocket fired from south Lebanon was found in the area of the city of Nahariya and Kibbutz Gesher Aziv,a police source told AFP.