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Comments (0)The Palestinians will withdraw from peace talks with Israel if construction in the settlements resumes, Mahmoud Abbas told the Mideast Quartet. In a letter delivered Sunday to representatives of the Quartet grouping of the United States, Russia, the United Nations and the European Union, which guides the Middle East peace process, the Palestinian Authority president said that if the settlement building freeze ends as scheduled on Sept. 26 then the Palestinian Authority will withdraw from the direct peace talks scheduled to be launched Sept. 2 in Washington. Abbas called on the Quartet to follow previous resolutions dealing with the Israel-Palestinian conflict, including the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference, the 2002 road map to peace and the Arab Peace Initiative, all of which call for an end to settlement construction. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Likud Party ministers on Sunday that the freeze would end as scheduled. Meanwhile, Hamas canceled reconciliation talks with Abbas’ Fatah party over the weekend due to the announcement of direct negotiations with Israel. The groups have remained split since Hamas’ takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.
Extreme Heat Damages Israeli Apple Harvest
Israel’s apple harvest has been severely damaged by extreme heat. Nearly 2,500 acres of orchards were damaged in Israel’s Galilee and Golan during an intense heat wave last week, apple growers reported. The damaged fruit amounts to about 20 percent of Israel’s apple production, according to Haaretz. “The apples were baked on the trees,” Gabi Coneal, head of the fruit branch at Kibbutz Marom Golan, told the Jerusalem Post. “The damage is nothing less than catastrophic.” Red Top Apples, which are unique to the region and are a favorite on Israelis’ Rosh Hashanah dinner tables, were nearly all spoiled, according to the Post. Apples that survived the heat are expected to have a shorter life expectancy in storage. A record harvest due to the relatively warm winter season had been expected, according to reports; now damage estimates are in the millions. Israeli farmers produce about 110,000 tons of apples per year, according to the Agriculture Ministry. Another 2,000 tons of apples are imported each year from the United States and Europe.
Police Recommend Indicting Olmert Over Holyland
Israeli police have recommended that prosecutors indict Ehud Olmert in a real estate scandal. The police investigations unit turned over its file on the Holyland apartment project scandal to State Prosecuter Moshe Lador on Monday along. The police recommendation has no formal bearing. Olmert, the former Israeli prime minister, is suspected of accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes during the construction of the Holyland apartment project in Jerusalem when he was mayor of Jerusalem and then trade minister. Olmert is currently on trial in other corruption scandals. The police also recommended charging several other former officials on charges ranging from bribery and fraud to tax offenses, including Olmert’s former bureau chief Shula Zaken, former Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski, and former Israel Land Administration head Yaakov Efrati. The Holyland project started while Olmert was mayor of Jerusalem from 1993 to 2003, and continued under his successor, Lupolianski, who served until 2008.