French rescuers group snubs Holocaust commemoration

(JTA) -- A French Protestant organization that saved Jews during the Holocaust declined to attend a commemoration because one of its organizers was a pro-Israel Jewish group.

The Marseille branch of CIMADE turned down an invitation to the region’s main memorial ceremony for Jewish Holocaust victims because CRIF, the umbrella group representing French Jewish communities, organized the event  with the municipality.

The values that led CIMADE to save Jews make the group “equally committed to oppose the colonial, discriminatory and bellicose policy of Israel with regards to the Palestinians,” CIMADE regional deputies Francoise Rocheteau and Jean-Pierre Cavalie wrote in a letter to the local CRIF branch on Dec. 21. It also said CIMADE was determined to fight “apartheid.”

The letter, which was published online Monday by a group that promotes a boycott of Israel, was a reply to an invitation extended by CRIF to CIMADE to attend the 70th commemoration on Jan. 20 of the deportation and subsequent murder of thousands of local Jews.

Marseille had a Jewish population of 39,000 in 1939, according to Beit Hatfutsot, the Museum of the Jewish People. Only 10,000 remained after the Holocaust.

CIMADE, which was established in 1939, organized “vital relief and later resistance” in connection with the murders, according to Yad Vashem, and helped smuggle Jews to safety. Yad Vashem named Madeleine Barot, who headed CIMADE during the Holocaust, a Righteous Among the Nations in 1988. She died seven years later.

“We understand our positions may appear unacceptable, making us unwelcome at your commemoration,” the CIMADE representatives wrote. “We cannot keep silent on our convictions but do not wish to cause a scandal.”

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Jewish cemetery desecrated in Tunisia

February 8, 2013

(JTA) 

For the second time in a month, vandals desecrated Jewish graves in Tunisia.

On Feb. 4, unidentified individuals smashed and overturned ten gravestones in Kef in Western Tunisia, according to the Tunisia News Network.

An earlier incident in the coastal Tunisian town of Sousse left more than 68 Jewish graves ransacked and looted on Jan. 23, according to the Tunisian Shems FM radio station.

The last Jew left Kef in 1984, according to Dreuz.info, a French new site. It quoted Yves Kamhi, a Jewish lawyer, as saying some human skeletons were found outside their graves.

Some 1,700 Jews live in Tunisia, according to the European Jewish Congress. They numbered 100,000 in 1948.

Financial Times reporter apologizes for hinting Israel bribed Bulgaria

February 6, 2013

(JTA) -- A correspondent for the Financial Times apologized for suggesting that Israel may have bribed Bulgaria to frame Hezbollah.

“Sincere apologies and regret for ill-conceived tweet yesterday about Israel and Bulgaria,” Borzou Daragahi, the London-based newspaper's Middle East and North Africa correspondent, wrote Wednesday on Twitter.

The previous day Daragahi had tweeted, “I don't doubt Hezbollah/Iran could be behind Bulgaria bombing, but also think Israel could pay Sofia to say anything.” He included a URL of a Reuters article quoting Bulgarian Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov as blaming two Hezbollah operatives for the July 18 bus bombing in Burgas in which six people were killed, including five Israeli tourists.

“We have well-grounded reasons to suggest that the two were members of the militant wing of Hezbollah,” Tsvetanov said.

Daragahi’s apology came after a harsh statement concerning his comment by HonestReporting, an Israel-based media watchdog group.

“It is disgraceful for someone who calls himself a journalist to deal in second-rate conspiracy mongering,” HonestReporting CEO Joe Hyams said in a statement published on the organization’s website.
Founded in 1888, the Financial Times has a combined print and online average daily readership of 2.1 million worldwide, according to its website.

Kerry talks to Netanyahu, Abbas

John Kerry, freshly installed as secretary of state, spoke with the Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

Also over the weekend, two top State Department officials dealing with Iran's alleged nuclear threat said they would be stopping in Israel during overseas visits and Israel's military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, was visiting Washington.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland spoke about Kerry's conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"The secretary underscored his personal commitment and that of President Obama to support Israel's security and to pursue a lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians," Nuland said, according to a Reuters report.

Kerry, who plans to visit the region next month, also spoke to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The State Department in a statement laid out the agenda for the two State Department officials -- Rose Gottemoeller, the acting undersecretary for arms control, and Thomas Countryman, the assistant secretary for nonproliferation.

Countryman will "meet with Israeli counterparts to discuss nonproliferation and international security issues of mutual concern," and Gottemoeller will "consult with senior civilian and military officials on pressing regional security issues and expanding our enduring strategic partnership" and deliver remarks at a conference on nuclear nonproliferation, the statement said.

The Obama administration has indicated that it is seeking to engage with Iran in direct talks aimed at ending Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program. Iran says its nuclear activity is strictly peaceful.

The Israel Defense Forces in announcing the five-day visit by Gantz said it was "official ... as the guest of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin E. Dempsey."

In its statement, the IDF said the two generals would "discuss current security challenges, the regional security status in the Middle East and military cooperation."

Iran’s security head: Israel will ‘regret’ striking Syrian targets

February 4, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israel will "regret" striking targets in Syria, Iran's national security council head said during a visit to Damascus.

"(T)he Zionist entity will regret its aggression against Syria," Saeed Jalili, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said Monday morning.

"Syria is at the forefront of the Muslim world's confrontation with the Zionist entity," Jalili also reportedly said. 

His comments came a day after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak at the Munich Security Conference implied that Israel was responsible for a strike last week on a Syrian military facility and also reportedly a convoy of advanced missiles being delivered to Hezbollah.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied that it was responsible for the strikes on Syrian territory.

Iran and Syria previously had threatened to retaliate against Israel. 

Jalili also threatened to respond to the attack in international organizations, in Iran's role as head of the Non-Aligned Movement. 
 

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