Iran threatens retaliatory strike
Iran’s air force threatened to bomb Israel if it attacks Iranian nuclear facilities.
“We have drawn up a plan so that in the event of foolishness by this regime, Iran’s bombers can retaliate by attacking Israel’s soil,” Mohammed Alavi, deputy commander for Iranian air force operations, told Tehran’s Fars News Agency on Wednesday, Sept. 19.
Israel, like the United States, has hinted it could resort to pre-emptive strikes if diplomatic pressure fails to rein in Iran’s nuclear program. Alavi played down Israel’s capabilities. “Israel’s talk of an air attack is judst a psychological war, since we reject the regime’s ability to mount an air attack on Iran,” he said.
While Israeli experts consider Iranian missiles a major threat, there is less respect for Iran’s largely antiquated air force. Alavi’s remarks coincided with Iran’s announcement that it was testing a new kind of locally made fighter jet known as Sa’ikeh. — jta
Synagogue smeared with graffiti
A swastika and other graffiti were found smeared on the exterior of a synagogue in western Germany, police said. The graffiti — which included the words “Germany to the Germans” scrawled next to the swastika — apparently were daubed using chocolate on the outside wall of the synagogue in Paderborn on the night of Sept. 12 or early on the morning of Sept. 13, police said. — ap
Anti-Semitic party gains in Greece
A Greek political party critics call anti-Semitic gained 10 parliamentary seats in national elections last weekend. Giorgos Karatzaferis’ Popular Orthodox Alarm becomes the first extreme-right party to enter the 300-seat parliament in 33 years.
A January 2005 report on global anti-Semitism by the U.S. State Department described the party as supporting a “virulent nationalism, anti-Semitism, racism,” and reported that its leader “regularly attributes negative events involving Greece to international Jewish plots.” Karatzaferis has tried to change his party’s image and denies he is racist or anti-Semitic. Analysts attribute the party’s gain to a backlash against the weakened but still ruling conservative New Democracy Party in wake of the recent wildfires that swept the country and killed 67 people. — jta
Soccer clubs ban hate expression
Three prominent clubs in eastern Germany have united in banning right-wing and other extremist symbols from their stadiums.
Second-division Carl Zeiss Jena and two third-division clubs, Dynamo Dresden and Magdeburg, announced they would not allow fans wearing or carrying extremist symbols. “We will not tolerate anti-Semitism, violence and xenophobia in our stadiums and in our clubs,” said Dynamo’s chief executive Bernd Maas. Matches in former East Germany, especially in lower divisions, often have been marred by the presence of neo-Nazis and hooligan violence. — ap
Holocaust denier’s sentence upheld
Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel will not avoid prison.
The German Federal High Court confirmed Monday, Sept. 17 that it has upheld the 68-year-old Zundel’s five-year prison sentence. On Sept. 12, the court rejected a 600-page proposed revision in the sentence. After a yearlong trial Zundel, one of the world’s most active Holocaust deniers, was sentenced Feb. 15 by the Mannheim district court on charges of denying the Holocaust on his Canada and U.S.-based Internet site.
Presiding judge Ulrich Meinerzhagen described Zundel as an “extreme anti-Semite” and “committed National Socialist” who sought to glamorize Hitler and make him seem harmless. Reportedly Zundel is one of the first right-wing extremists to use the Internet to spread hate material worldwide. — jta
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California