Arab leaders call on Obama to offer peace plan

Palestinians thwart Israeli plans to storm Aqsa Mosque on Yom Kippur’s eve

Palestinians warn 3rd intifada might break out in response to attempts to storm 3rd holiest shrine

U.S. urges Israel to investigate Gaza crimes

The head of the Arab League and the Egyptian foreign minister on Friday urged President Barack Obama to present his own outline of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal, in order to break the current logjam and spur negotiations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remain far apart on what it takes to return to peace talks, despite vigorous U.S. mediation this week, including an Obama-hosted meeting of the two leaders.

The key disputes are over continued Israeli settlement construction and what should be on the agenda of future talks.

Abbas says he won't resume talks without an internationally mandated settlement freeze. He insists that talks resume where they broke off last year, under Netanyahu's more pragmatic predecessor, and that all issues be on the table. Netanyahu says a partition of Jerusalem and a possible repatriation of Palestinian refugees are not up for discussion.

On Friday, Abbas told the U.N. General Assembly that "the settlement policy ... will abort opportunities to relaunch the peace process" and warned that time for a deal is running out.

He said international peace efforts have been "confronted by Israeli intransigence, which refuses to adhere to the requirements for relaunching the peace process."

In reiterating his position on the world stage, Abbas signaled that he's not prepared to budge.

Netanyahu has been equally insistent on his right to keep building, even though an internationally backed peace blueprint of 2003 — also accepted by Israel — demands a halt to construction.

Amr Moussa, secretary general of the 23-member Arab League, said Friday, in response to a question, that it would be "very useful" to hear from Obama what he considers to be the parameters of a fair peace agreement. Such a framework "would trigger a very viable, useful process of peace," Moussa told a news conference.

Meanwhile, The Information Ministry of the Palestinian National Authority has urged the world bodies including the UN Security Council to play its role in protecting the Al-Aqsa mosque that is being targeted by the Israel occupation forces preventing the Muslim worshippers from practicing their religious rites freely.

Issuing the statement the Ministry states: "Israeli occupation police and extremist settlers attempted on Sunday morning (September 27, 2009), to implement a new wave of organized terror, through breaking into the courtyard of the mosque, firing tear gas bombs and live bullets against the Palestinians who were engaged in prayers resulting in injury to more than sixteen persons so far. Extremist Zionist groups' announcement to storm the mosque in order to perform religious rites on the occasion of the so-called 'Yom Kippur'.

"Accordingly, the Ministry of Information calls upon our people to gather at the mosque and to stand in the face of extremist Jewish groups. Furthermore, it calls upon the masses of Arab and Islamic nations, and lovers of justice in the world to protest the crime and to resist it by all legitimate means.

The Ministry also urges countries of the world, the Security Council, international human rights bodies, the United Nations, the Arab League, and the Islamic Conference organization to play its role in providing protection to the Al-Aqsa Mosque that exposed to the non-stop conspiracies targeting its existence, and preventing the worshippers from practicing their religious rites freely.

The Ministry calls on all local, Arab and international media organizations to disclose the ugly face of the Israeli occupation that does not hold any value to the sanctities of Islam and Christianity, freedom of worship, and continues excavations that threaten the existence of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The statement adds that the Israeli police and soldiers breaking into Al-Aqsa Mosque, particularly, the Dome of the Rock Mosque and Al-Marwani Mosque remind them of 25th of September 1996, when a tunnel was opened under the Aqsa Mosque.

"It also brings to mind Sharon's black visit on 28th September 2000, the incident that set off a massive uprising in the entire Palestinian territories."

Finally, the similarity between the previous aggression and today, calls for urgent international action to protect Jerusalem, to defend its people, and its holy sites, because the delay on that means further aggression, killings and raids as well as creating new facts on the ground.

All these actions blow up all efforts to bring peace and to establish an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

Palestinian leaders warned Israel Sunday not to stoke tension in Jerusalem in the hope of thwarting peace talks, after clashes at a sacred site in which Palestinians and Israeli police were injured.

"At a time when (U.S.) President (Barack) Obama is trying to bridge the divide between Palestinians and Israelis, and to get negotiations back on track, Israel is deliberately escalating tensions in Jerusalem," chief peace negotiator Saeb Erakat said.

"We've seen this before, and we know what the consequences are," the Palestinian minister added, in a statement that recalled the visit of then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon to the site in Jerusalem's Old City in 2000.

Sharon's presence at al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, triggered the second Palestinian uprising and dealt the biggest setback to peace efforts in years.

The reasons behind Sunday's clash were disputed.

According to legislator Hathem Abdel Kader and other Palestinian sources, the clash erupted in the early morning when Palestinians inside the complex -- sacred to both Islam and Judaism -- saw a group of 15 religious Jews trying to enter.

The Jews never managed to get into the complex, because several hundred Palestinians, who were on alert for such a possibility, began a loud protest. Israeli police responded with tear gas then stun grenades.

The clash occurred hours before the start of Yom Kippur, the solemn "Day of Atonement" which is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Police were on alert for violent protests in several flashpoints where Jews and Arabs live side by side.

Protesters threw stones, chairs and whatever they could lay hands on as riot police rushed to the scene. Video showed them trying to drive police away from the doorway of the al-Aqsa mosque, but there was no sign that police entered it.

Police said 17 officers were hurt and 11 rioters arrested, and medics said 13 Palestinians were treated for injuries. There were no reports of serious injury or death.

Israeli police said it began when religious Palestinians angered by immodestly dressed tourists grew violent.

Palestinians dismissed that account, saying no tourists were involved. There was no further comment from Israeli authorities, who were observing the Yom Kippur silence.

"Providing a police escort for settlers who are against peace at all costs, and whose presence is deliberately designed to provoke a reaction, are not the actions of someone who is committed to peace, but of someone who will go to extraordinary lengths to scuttle all hopes of peace," Erakat said.

He said it was "deliberately timed to coincide with the eve of the anniversary of that visit" by a government "emboldened by its ability to fend off calls for a settlement freeze."

The complex is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary). Located above the Jewish prayer site at the Western Wall, it includes al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock mosque.

In Muslim tradition, the Prophet Mohammad ascended to heaven from the rock at the center of what is now the Dome of the Rock shrine. The gilded dome sits over the spot where Jews believe Abraham was about to sacrifice his son Isaac to God before an angel stayed his hand.

Jewish visitors need permission from Israeli police to visit this part of the site. During mass Muslim prayers, Israel also restricts access by Palestinian Muslim men under 50.

Israel captured the site in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it with the rest of East Jerusalem, in a move not recognized internationally.

Sharon's visit enraged Palestinians and the resulting uprising rapidly escalated, with numerous suicide bomb attacks on Israeli civilians.

The United States called on its close ally Israel on Tuesday to conduct credible investigations into allegations of war crimes committed by its forces in Gaza, saying it would help the Middle East peace process.

Michael Posner, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, said that Hamas leaders also had a responsibility to investigate crimes and to end what he called its targeting of civilians in Israel and use of Palestinians as human shields.

The U.N. Human Rights Council held a one-day debate on a report issued this month by Richard Goldstone, a South African jurist and former U.N. war crimes prosecutor.

His panel found the Israeli army and Palestinian militants committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity during their December-January war. Israel did not cooperate with the U.N. inquiry and has rejected the report as biased. "We encourage Israel to utilize appropriate domestic (judicial) review and meaningful accountability mechanisms to investigate and follow up on credible allegations," Posner said in a speech to the Geneva forum.

"If undertaken properly and fairly, these reviews can serve as important confidence-building measures that will support the larger essential objective which is a shared quest for justice and lasting peace," he said.

But he also said Goldstone's report was "deeply flawed," without providing any details. Washington disagreed with the report's "methodology and many of its recommendations," he said.

He added that the Council paid "grossly disproportionate attention" to Israel, but said that the U.S. delegation was ready to engage in balanced debate.

Goldstone told a news conference it was encouraging that the United States "has called for acceptable investigations of the allegations by both sides. I think that's important support."

Earlier, he said a lack of accountability for war crimes committed in the Middle East had reached "crisis point," undermining any hope for peace in the region.

Israel says its offensive was intended to stop militants firing rockets at Israel. Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says 773 of 1,387 Palestinians killed were civilians. Israel says 709 combatants and 295 civilians were killed. Thirteen Israelis, 10 soldiers and three civilians, died.

Goldstone's report urges the U.N. Security Council to refer the allegations to the International Criminal Court in the Hague if either Israeli or Palestinian authorities fail to investigate and prosecute those suspect of such crimes within six months. "International courts are courts of last resort, not first resort," he said on Tuesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said that the Council had a duty to follow up on Goldstone's recommendations in the interest of all victims. In a speech, she also decried the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Later this week, the Council is due to consider a resolution presented by Arab and Islamic countries condemning Israel's failure to cooperate and calling on all parties to implement the report's recommendations. A vote is expected on Friday.

Israel's ambassador Leshno Yaar rejected the report as "shameful" and "one-sided." Israel had opened more than 100 investigations, 23 of which had led to criminal proceedings.

Ibrahim Khraishi, ambassador of the Palestinian delegation, urged the Council to adopt the report which he called objective.

"My people will not forgive the international community if the criminals are left without punishment," he said.