Israeli minister's bullying taunts sparks diplomatic outrage, US removes sanctions on Italian UN Palestine Rapporteur and Germany replaces US Patriot battery, forces at Incirlik AFB

Few things are more fun these days in Europe in these deeply unfun times than America-bashing. Israel-bashing is maybe even a distant second with the most vocal pro-Palestine networks being fed Sudan conflict faff to keep those more or less dormant networks on life support. Even the more active ones have been forced deeper underground because of the Iran conflict. 

But the hardcore core of the flotilla scene is getting a hard lesson in agitprop courtesy a minister ostensibly tasked with national security responsibilities which are being handled maximally irresponsibly. And the usual task of denouncing such activities has now been taken up at the highest level. The German media loves "shitstorm" in the headlines, but sometimes the confluence of circumstances delivers a genuine clusterfuck.

When it comes to America, MAGA, all things Donald Trump, red hats, brown shirts, America is a pretty good place to punch down. Even German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a former chairman of the supervisory board of the German arm of the world's largest asset manager, the American multinational Blackrock, thinks the US is not a place to send his own children at present time. This is not the French—since when did the German Chancellor start biting the hand that feeds him? 

This is but one way to react to the announcement that the US has announced a drawdown of 5,000 troops in your country (now destined for Poland, it turns out, for now anyway). At the same time, ahead of critical regional elections in the eastern half of the country, the far-right Alternativ für Deutschland is tops in the polls.  Traditionally, the alt-right or far-right international is taken as a given. But what if it is truly not? The desire to mirror transatlantic politics like a hand in glove on both sides of the pond is a grevous error.

Within the far-right scene in Germany, there are undoubtedly MAGA-fied pro-American conservatives in the vein of Trump era voices; a multiracial, multiethnic, white Christian nationalist coalition to safeguard the state from the serious. There are also, however, those who likely see more eye to eye with the Kryuchkov generation of KGB men controlling the Kremlin right now, the same men (and they are all pretty much men) who see themselves as the rightful heirs to Tsarist legacies.

In Germany and Russia, there are only centuries whereas in America there is an American century to speak of. It was a thing that belonged to the past, the last century. There is a veritable struggle, to, in the words of Dylan Thomas, "not go gentle into that good night." Next year are critical elections in Germany and presidential elections in France. In the US, at least there is a common language, a facile level where we can message the basics about dignity and liberty and the pursuit of ambition relevant status symbols. When it comes to European elections, shocks to the system show which states will stand and which will fall. 

Remember this about the Kryuchkov generation of KGB men in the Kremlin: they were young men in 1989-1991. They watched as soldiers abandoned tanks, agents the Stasi headquarters in East Berlin. Theirs is a rage aginst the dying of the light of darkness, to have that last torch or to be the last one out. "No one knows what the future will bring," a Soviet radio presenter reported while covering Khrushchev's "Secret Speech," but, he added, "The past is changing before our very eyes." 

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ASHDOD, ISRAEL – Video of minister taunting flotilla activists in detention sparks outrage

• The Washington Post reports Thursday that a video Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted of himself taunting flotilla activists, many of whom are from European nations, sparked outrage across the Alpine region and the wider continent for its low-key brutalism and primitivity.
• With their nationals among the flotilla participants, France and Italy joined Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain in summoning their countries' Israeli ambassador. Germany, along with Britain, Ireland and Portugal, "offered condemnation of how the activists were treated." Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote the images posted by Ben-Gvir are "unacceptable" and said his actions "violates human dignity." Unspoken: you build really amazing weapons and deftech with cool capabilities for total lethality but then your idiot minister does this schoolyard bully shit? For real?
• Even the US Ambassador Mike Huckabee called out Ben-Gvir's actions as "despicable" while dismissing the latest flotilla to Gaza effort as "a stupid stunt". Further, Israel's Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote Ben-Gvir "caused harm to our State".

WASHINGTON, DC – US removes sanctions on UN Palestine Rapporteur

• Politico reports Thursday that "Francesca Albanese, the Italian lawyer serving as the United Nations special rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, has been removed from the U.S. sanctions blacklist after a federal court intervened against the Trump administration’s decision."
• Albanese spent months cut off from the financial system after sanctions were imposed in July of last year by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio who accused her of spewing "unabashed antisemitism". The reversal came after the sanctions were blocked temporarily by a federal judge one week ago after "finding the U.S. administration likely violated Albanese’s constitutional free-speech protections by targeting her after repeated criticism of Israel for its military actions in Gaza."
• Albanese authored a report accusing numerous blue chip US corporations of complicity in what she described as the "ongoing genocidal campaign in Gaza."

BERLIN, GERMANY – Germany to replace Patriot battery, forces at Incirlik base in Türkiye

• Defense News reports Tuesday that German forces will depoy a Patriot battery and forces to operate it to Incirlik air force base in southeastern Turkey "as NATO seeks to reinforce its southeastern flank in the wake of Iranian missile strikes targeting Turkish territory."
• Roughly 150 troops stationed with the "Flugabwehrraketengeschwader 1, based in Husum, Germany, will form a Patriot Air and Missile Defence Task Force (AMD TF) and will relieve a U.S. unit currently stationed in the country." A Bundeswehr press statement said the unit "will operate under NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) framework in close coordination with Turkish and remaining American forces".
• In early March, the Iranians fired four missiles at Turkish territory, with one targeting Incirlik base in southeastern Adana province. NATO's Supreme Headquarters Allied Command Europe responded to the incidents by boosting "the alliance's ballistic missile defense posture" and deploying "additional Patriot systems to Adana and Malatya." Secretary General Mark Rutte also warned that Iran "is also posing a huge threat to us here in Europe."

BERLIN, GERMANY – German spy agency opts for French tech firm's AI over Palantir

• Politico reports last Friday that Germany's domestic intelligence agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution—known by its German initials BfV—has opted for the French ChapsVision ArgonOS software over Palantir in the latest European move to decouple state tech systems from American companies.
• Several German outlets reported that the French firm's software will "sift through structured and unstructured data and prepare it for human analysts."
• In December, Sinan Selen said "his agency wanted to rely on European alternatives to Palantir." Further, "several agencies in France are already using the software—including the domestic intelligence service DGSI." In Germany, there is a "broader" debate "over Palantir's role in the country's security infrastructure", with some police forces already making use of it. The Interior Ministry is also considering adopting Palantir's software, though critics charge there are data protection risks or at the very least the perception of them when using American software.

BERLIN, GERMANY – American missionary who worked in DRC being treated for Ebola

• The BBC reports Tuesday that "A US doctor who tested positive for Ebola while working with a medical missionary group in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is being treated at a hospital in Germany," specifically "a special isolation ward at Charité hospital".
• One hundred thirty one have died in the latest outbreak, with 513 cases suspected. The US Centers for Disease Control said it is "working to evacuate at least six other Americans who were exposed to the deadly virus."
• While authorities did not identify who was in the hospital in Berlin, the "medical missionary group Serge said later on Monday that one of its US doctors, Peter Stafford, had tested positive for Ebola" after "He was exposed while treating patients at Nyankunde Hospital in Bunia, where he has worked since 2023".

BERLIN, GERMANY – Pernicious resurgence of antisemitism at postwar records

• The Times of Israel reports Thursday that Germany's Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism recorded nearly 2,200 antisemitic incidents in Berlin last year, according to a report published this week.
• While "The figure was down about 13% from 2,521 incidents the previous year," it did however "more than double pre-October 7, 2023, levels."
• Forty of the incidents were violent, including a stabbing at the Holocaust Memorial. At anti-Israel events last year, 239 instances of "antisemitic slogans, denial of Israel's right to exist, and calls to 'kill Jews'" were recorded.

PARIS, FRANCE – Air France and Airbus guilty of manslaughter over 2009 plane crash

• The BBC reports Thursday that the Paris Appeals Court found Air France and Airbus "guilty of manslaughter" over the 2009 plane crash of Air France flight 447 nonstop service from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to Paris which crashed into the ocean after takeoff.
• Airline Air France and manufacturer Airbus were found "solely and entirely responsible" for the incident which took the lives of all 216 passengers and 12 flight crew members on board. The aircraft "stalled during a storm" before it plunged into the ocean.
• Previously a court cleared the airline and aircraft manufacturer in April of 2023 but after eight weeks of trial, both were found guilty Thursday, which both deny and have vowed to appeal. The companies have been ordered to each pay the maximum fine of €225,000 ($262,000), which some victims families criticize as "a token penalty."

MODERNA, ITALY – Mentally ill man plows car into pedestrians, injuring 8, four critically

• The BBC reports Saturday that a mentally ill mad in the northern Italian city of Modena plowed into pedestrians, injuring eight, four of whom were in a critical state.
• After the initial car ramming incident, the man waved a knife and attempted to flee on foot before he was stopped by one or more bystanders according to conflicting accounts in the media. One woman had to have both of her legs amputated. Two people had to be medevaced by helicopter to regional capital Bologna 30 miles (48 km) away, The New York Times adds. German and Polish nationals were among the injured.
• Authorities and anti-immigrant, hard right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on social media platform X identified the man as a 31 year old Italian national of Moroccan origin named Salim El Koudri.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Ex-intel officer found guilty of spying for Russia

• The BBC reports Wednesday that former Austrian intelligence officer Egisto Ott was found guilty of spying for Russia and deliveirng information to fugitive Wirecard executive Jan Marsalek who is believed to be residing in Moscow at present after he fled through Austria.
• Ott denies the charges but received four years and one month in prison at sentencing, which his lawyer has appealed. In what is a mild in that British way statement: "The spy scandal has revived fears that Austria remains a hotbed of Russian espionage activity."
• Best detail about the level of spycraft we are talking about: "Ott was also found guilty of having passed phone data from senior Austrian interior ministry officials to Russia. He obtained the work phones after they accidentally fell into the River Danube on an interior ministry boating trip." He then copied that data before passing it on to Marsalek and Moscow.

VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Ministry opens inquiry into two alleged sniper 'safari' participants

• The Times of London reports Wednesday that Austria's Ministry of Justice "is investigating two people suspected of paying large sums of money to shoot humans during the Siege of Sarajevo in the 1990s."
• In one of the most lurid stories that has dogged the legacy of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s with scant proof offered over the years, the Austrian Justice Ministry now appears to have opened an investigation of April 25 "against an Austrian citizen and another as-yet-unidentified individual in connection with possible participation in so-called 'sniper tours' in Sarajevo during the Bosnian War". The Austrian inquiry follows an earlier "investigation started by Italian magistrates".
• The sniper tourists "were allegedly hosted by Serbian militia at a Jewish cemetery that overlooks Sarajevo." A book published last month by a Croatian journalist alleges that an Austrian arisocrat may have taken part. It is the latest work that takes on the topic after an earlier film and investigative work by an Italian journalist.

BRNO, CZECHIA – Tightly controlled Sudeten Germans conference agitprop to go ahead

• Deutsche Welle reports Tuesday that "The first gathering of Sudeten Germans in Czechia since World War II is set to go ahead this weekend" after many drum beats and ridiculous media profiles of conferene convener, the Chairman of the Sudeten German Association Bernd Posselt (and not at all a Mel Brooks or Zero Mostel-style Hitler cosplayer).
• Why is any of this necessary now? Well, that is very well and sort of the first red flag if you had breezed passed the earlier ones. From Munich, Posselt played the perfect German, telling the international public broadcaster, "I think that at a time when war and nationalism are growing worldwide, this meeting between us and our Czech friends is very important". Natürlich!
• If you are unfamiliar with these cut outs and dusted off relics from the past, they are also fluent in the new millennium language of diversity, inclusion, morality and reconciilation.

And finally, an update on the story we brought you at the end of last week's monitor…

MLADÁ BOLESLAV, CZECHIA – Skull stolen from church recovered, suspect arrested

• The Guardian reports last Friday that the "800-year-old relic believed to be the skull of Saint Zdislava" which was stolen from the Church of Saint Lawrence and Saint Zdislava in the town of Jablonné v Podještědí was "recovered encased in concrete" though now "experts work to extract it".
• According to police, the suspect, a 35-year-old man, "objected to the relic being publicly displayed and encased it in concrete before planning to throw it into a river". The local police chief, Petr Rajt, told the media that if the suspect had not been arrested last Thursday, "the skull would probably never be found." The man had no prior criminal record but remains in pre-trial detention. He has pleaded guilty and faces eight years in prison.
• Saint Zdislava was a 13th century noblewoman famed for her generosity and work with the poor. In 1995, she was canonized by then Pope John Paul II.

Stay safe and old age should burn and rave at close of day!

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