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[ad_1] JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu 's top ministers are squabbling, as deadline looms for contentious legislation that may bring down his government and a corruption indictment could be just around the corner. Against this backdrop, there're signs he may soon call for elections — possibly as early as next week, when parliament reconvenes from its summer break. And though Netanyahu hasn't committed yet, conditions appear ripe for him to schedule the vote, nearly a year ahead of schedule. Polls, for now at least, predict a solid Netanyahu victory, one that would assure his place in history as Israel's longest-serving leader and allow him to solidify his close alliance with US President Donald Trump. But one big obstacle could still trip him up: a mounting corruption investigation that may soon deliver criminal charges. [ad_2]

[ad_1] JERUSALEM: In a first-of-its-kind case, Israel has held an American graduate student at its international airport for a whole week, accusing her of supporting a Palestinian-led boycott movement against the Jewish state. Lara Alqasem, a 22-year-old American citizen with Palestinian grandparents, landed at Ben-Gurion Airport last Tuesday with a valid student visa. But she was barred from entering the country and ordered deported, based on suspicions that she supports a campaign that calls for boycotts, divestments, and sanctions against Israel. An Israeli court has ordered that she remain in custody while she appeals. The weeklong detention is the longest anyone has been held in a boycott-related case, and it was not immediately clear on Tuesday when a decision would be made. Alqasem is a former president of the University of Florida chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, a group that supports the boycott movement. The grassroots boycott campaign, known as BDS, has targeted...

[ad_1] JERUSALEM: The UN agency for Palestinian refugees on Friday expressed concern after Jerusalem's Israeli mayor said he would remove it from the city. Mayor Nir Barkat announced in a statement on Thursday a "detailed plan to remove UNRWA from Jerusalem and replace its services with municipal services". UNRWA said such a move would affect its humanitarian operations and installations in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. The agency runs schools and health centres particularly in the Shuafat refugee camp where it says 24,000 Palestinians are estimated to live. UNRWA has come under pressure from Israel and the United States. The two countries object to the fact that Palestinians can pass refugee status to their children, and want the number of refugees covered by the agency to be sharply reduced. The US administration ending its funding to UNRWA in August, the latest in a series of controversial moves applauded by the Israeli government but criticised by the Palestinians...

[ad_1] JERUSALEM: German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the second day of her two-day visit to Israel on Thursday with an emotional tour of the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum. Israel was established three years after the end of World War II , and the German government has paid billions in reparations to Holocaust survivors and positioned itself as a leader in combatting anti-Semitism. Under Merkel, it has been perhaps Israel's strongest European ally. Accompanied by Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev, Merkel took special notice of an exhibited letter that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler sent deployed German soldiers in which he tried to boost their morale by saying they were fighting ``a war of existence, a war against communism and its perpetrators, the Jews.'' She then participated in a memorial ceremony for the 6 million victims of the Nazi-led Holocaust. "The Jews in Germany suffered from hatred and violence that the world did not know was possible,''...