From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Suspected Nazi loses Canadian citizenship
TORONTO (JTA) — Nazi-era war-crimes suspect Helmut Oberlander has lost an appeal to keep his Canadian citizenship.
In a ruling made public last week, Canada’s Federal Court rejected the claim of Oberlander, 90, that he served Nazi Germany under duress. The court’s verdict upheld an earlier government decision.
Oberlander failed to show that he had made any effort to leave the Einsatzkommando Nazi death squad, which he served as an interpreter, the court ruled.
“There was no evidence that he was mistreated and no evidence that he sought to be relieved of his duties. He served the Nazi cause for three or four years [and] surrendered at the end of the war,” the court found, adding that Oberlander “has never expressed any remorse for being a member of [the death squad] or indicated that he found the activities of the organization abhorrent. There is no evidence that what he did for the organization was inconsistent with his will.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
One-third of Germans: Israeli and Nazi policies similar
BERLIN (JTA) — More than one-third of Germans equated Israeli policies toward the Palestinians with Nazi policies towards the Jews, a new study found.
Called “Germany and Israel Today: Linked by the Past, Divided by the Present?” the study of 1,000 Germans aged 18 and over was released Monday, one day before International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The survey, which was conducted in October by the German Bertelsmann Foundation, found that while many Germans would prefer not to discuss the Holocaust, they are willing to compare Israeli policies toward Palestinians today with those of Nazi Germany.
Among the findings, 35 percent of the respondents held the view on Israeli and Nazi policies, rising from 30 percent in 2007. The view was more likely among less educated respondents, according to a statement accompanying the study.
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From PressTV
Israeli president declines invitation to meet Obama
Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin has declined an invitation by the White House to meet his US counterpart Barack Obama during his upcoming visit to the United States.
“Over the past few days, there has been contact between the relevant parties in Israel and the US, discussing the possibility of a meeting between President Obama and President Rivlin during his visit to New York,” a president’s residence statement read Sunday.
Rivlin will be in New York this week to attend a UN gathering.
“At this stage, it has been agreed not to hold a meeting during his visit, due to the schedule constraints of both leaders, and that a meeting would be scheduled at a later date,” said the statement.
The announcement come less than a week after the White House said there will not be a meeting between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he travels to the US in early March.
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From the Jewish Daily Forward
Can Ayelet Shaked Sell (Secular) Israel on the Far Right?
Tel Aviv Mom Gives Star Power to Pro-Settler Party
On a Tuesday in December, Ayelet Shaked sat on the stage of a reception center in an urban stretch of the Israel National Trail in north Tel Aviv. The room was full of bearded and clean-shaven men all wearing white button-down shirts and knitted yarmulkes, the uniform of the Orthodox settler movement. Shaked, one of the few women there, was wearing a formfitting black-and-white shift with a geometric pattern; her long black hair hung in waves over her shoulders. If it weren’t for her posters lining the wall behind the podium it would be easy to confuse her for a secular Tel Avivian who just happened to wander into the campaign event.
But that was the point. Shaked, 38, is the young, secular face of the Jewish Home, known in Hebrew as HaBayit HaYehudi, the far-right Orthodox nationalist group. Currently the fifth-largest faction in the Israeli Knesset, Jewish Home is poised to make a major showing in Israel’s March elections. Shaked, first elected to the Knesset in 2013, has been an integral part of the Jewish Home’s project to bring secular and non-Orthodox voters — whom Israelis call “traditional” — into pro-settler politics. At the heart of the Jewish Home’s platform is its plan to impose a non-state solution on the Palestinians, which would involve partial annexation of the occupied West Bank, Israeli citizenship for Palestinians who live near settlements, and limited autonomy under Israeli rule for millions of other Palestinians.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Foxman: Obama and Hollande won’t name Islamist threat
PRAGUE (JTA) — The national director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, said President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Francois Hollande were refusing to name Islamists as a threat to society.
Foxman made the assertion during a panel discussion Monday in the Czech capital to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp by Russian troops.
Recent attacks on Jews in Europe dominated the debates during the event, titled “Let My People Live,” which was organized by the Czech government and the European Jewish Congress.
“For Hollande to stand up in front of the world and to say that Charlie Hebdo had nothing to do with Islam is closing your eyes to a reality, to a truth,” Foxman said of the French president’s address following the slaying this month by Islamists of 17 people in the Paris area — four of them at a kosher shop and 12 at the offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly for its lampooning of Islam.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Poll: Five out of six Palestinians say Israel may have aided Paris attacks
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The vast majority of Palestinian respondents to a survey believe Israel may have played a role in the terror attacks in France this month.
Conducted by the Palestinian Maan News Agency, the poll found that 84 percent of Palestinians said the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine and Hyper Cacher supermarket in early January were “suspicious, and that Israel may be behind it,” according to Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli NGO that monitors Palestinian media.
Fewer than 9 percent of respondents blamed an increase in Islamic fundamentalism for the attacks.
Palestinian Media Watch cited examples of columns in Palestinian newspapers ahead of the survey alleging Israeli involvement in the attacks.
From Ynet News
Charlie Hebdo issue sells out in Israel
Court rejects injunction request by organizations and leaders in the Arab sector seeking to stop sale of issue; 550 copies sold on Steimatzky’s site in 7 minutes.
The controversial special issue of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo was sold online on Monday by the Steimatzky bookseller chain, as the district court in Haifa rejected an urgent injunction opposed to the sale.
The injunction request was submitted to the court on January 25 by attorney Mohammed Suleiman Agbarieh.
From the Jewish Daily Forward
Why I Fled Argentina After Alberto Nisman Scoop
By Damian Pachter (Haaretz)
So here they are, the craziest 48 hours of my life.
When my source gave me the scoop on Alberto Nisman’s death, I was writing a piece on the special prosecutor’s accusations against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, her (Jewish) Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, two pro-Iran “social activists” and parliamentarian Andrés Larroque. I learned that Nisman had been shot dead in his home.
From the Jewish Daily Forward
Argentina President Dissolves Spy Agency Over Alberto Nisman Death Controversy
Cristina Fernandez Suspects Rogue Agents Killed Prosecutor
President Cristina Fernandez plans to disband Argentina’s intelligence agency amid suspicions that rogue agents were behind the mysterious death of a state prosecutor investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center.
In her first televised address since Alberto Nisman was found dead with a single bullet to the head, Fernandez said on Monday night she would send Congress a bill creating a new security body that would be more transparent.
Nisman’s death on Jan. 18, just a day before he was due to appear in Congress over his claims that Fernandez conspired to derail his investigation, has triggered a storm of conspiracy theories, including some directly against Fernandez.
