Washington Tuesday reaffirmed its "crystal clear" stand that Palestinians will only realize their dream of statehood through direct talks with Israel, just hours after a controversial vote by French lawmakers.

"The U.S. position is clear, that we support Palestinian statehood but believe it can only be achieved through direct negotiations between the parties that resolve the final status issues," said deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday called for early elections as he fired two key ministers in his coalition government over a policy dispute.

"I will not tolerate opposition in my government any more," Netanyahu said of the sacking of Finance Minister Yair Lapid and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni.

It's aimed at children, but instead of princes and princesses, fairies and magicians, the heroes of Lebanon's "Mahdi" magazine are the "fighters who fell resisting the Israeli enemy".

Produced by Hizbullah for the last 11 years, Mahdi aims to teach a new generation the group's ideology of "resistance" to the Jewish state.

A Nazi war criminal who topped most wanted lists for his part in the Holocaust is "almost certain" to have died in Syria four years ago, a Nazi-hunting group said Monday.

"I am almost certain that he's no longer alive," Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Jerusalem office, told Agence France-Presse.

Israel's Supreme Court is to rule Wednesday on the planned demolition of several east Jerusalem homes as punishment for deadly attacks carried out by Palestinians, a rights group said.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu early in November ordered the demolition of the family homes of Palestinians who carried out attacks on Israelis.

The Israeli government on Sunday approved new draft legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration after judges quashed an earlier law as repressive, the interior ministry said.

The bill, which was unanimously approved by the cabinet, must now pass three votes in the parliament, or Knesset, before passing into law.

Hundreds of leftwing Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in Jerusalem against a controversial draft law enshrining Israel's status as the Jewish national homeland.

The rally was organized by Israel's Peace Now settlement watchdog and held across the street from the residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel's prime minister and defense minister announced on Saturday that the country's next military chief of staff will be Major General Gadi Eisenkot.

Eisenkot, currently deputy chief of staff, will replace Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, whose four-year term ends in February 2015.

The Arab League on Saturday backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' plan to seek U.N. endorsement for a timetable for declaring an independent state, and rejected recognizing Israel as a Jewish nation.

But the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, which Abbas attended, did not announce when they would approach the United Nations Security Council.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman suggested Friday that Israel should offer "economic incentives" to encourage Arab Israelis to leave the country and relocate to a future Palestinian state.

Arab Israelis "who decide their identity is Palestinian can relinquish their Israeli citizenship and become citizens of the future Palestinian state," Lieberman said in manifesto of his Israel Beitenu party.