The Palestinian Times

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A senior opposition leader in Israel unveiled a peace plan Sunday that held out the possibility of negotiations with Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group in control of the Gaza Strip. Shaul Mofaz, a former defense chief who is now number two in the centrist Kadima party, raised the prospect of talks with Hamas -- an idea rejected by both Israel and Hamas for years -- to restart the long-stalled peace process with the Palestinians. Israel and Western powers have said in the past they would engage Hamas if it agreed to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals, terms ... Read Full Story

TEL AVIV, Israel (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Washington on Sunday with the U.S. Middle East peace drive in crisis over a threat by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to stand down. Though Abbas's potential departure could mean the loss of a pivotal partner for Middle East peace talks, U.S. President Barack Obama has not said whether he will hold talks with Netanyahu while he is in Washington. Spokesmen for Netanyahu said the main reason for his four-day trip, which will include a Paris stopover for talks with France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, was a speech on Monday to a forum of ... Read Full Story

BERLIN (Reuters) - The head of a U.N. investigation that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza, Richard Goldstone, has said he is disappointed there has been such a "lukewarm" reaction to his findings in the United States. The report by Goldstone, a South African jurist, lambasted both sides in the December-January war, which killed up to 1,387 Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was harsher toward Israel. It gave Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants six months to mount credible investigations or face possible prosecution in The Hague. Both Israel and Hamas denied committing war crimes. "The reactions in the international community were very mixed, ... Read Full Story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A videotape of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden released on Friday is the Pashto-language version of a tape released several months ago, said IntelCenter, a U.S.-based terrorism monitoring firm. The tape, titled "To Our People in Pakistan," was broadly released in Arabic and Urdu on July 12, IntelCenter said. Excerpts had been aired by the Al Jazeera television network on June 3, it added. Earlier on Friday, IntelCenter had said al-Qaeda's as-Sahab Media had released a new video from bin Laden. In his remarks broadcast by Al Jazeera in June, Saudi-born bin Laden said U.S. President Barack Obama had planted ... Read Full Story

Hamas said Friday it is allowing Muslims to leave the Gaza Strip on the annual pilgrimage to Mecca after blocking them last year because of a Palestinian political dispute. "The first wave of around 1,000 hajj pilgrims from the Gaza Strip is now traveling to Egypt through the Rafah border crossing," Hamas religious affairs minister Taleb Abu Shaar told AFP. "We are coordinating with our brothers in the (West Bank political capital of) Ramallah to allow 4,500 pilgrims from Gaza to make the pilgrimage this year," he added. Hamas prevented pilgrims from leaving Gaza last year to protest Saudi Arabia's policy of only granting ... Read Full Story