Denmark sentences two Swedes for Israeli embassy attack
(JTA) — The financial services company Credit Suisse had hundreds more bank accounts with Nazi ties than it had previously revealed, a new investigation reported this week.
The findings were discovered when independent investigators audited UBS, the Swiss bank that acquired Credit Suisse in 2023.
“What the investigation has found to date shows that Credit Suisse’s involvement was more extensive than was previously known, and it underscores the importance of continuing to engage in research efforts about this horrific era of modern history,” Neil Barofsky, a lawyer overseeing the inquiry, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Feb. 10.
Barofsky’s report found 890 accounts potentially linked to Nazis: 628 individuals and 262 legal entities.
The investigation also found that Credit Suisse provided support to the “ratlines” that enabled Nazis to escape Europe and enter Argentina, opening and maintaining accounts for the Argentine Immigration Office.
Specifically, Barofsky said in his testimony, Credit Suisse provided funds “to finance bribes, obtain fraudulent travel documents, and pay for living expenses and transportation for fugitives, including perpetrators of the Holocaust.”
Barofsky’s investigation into UBS also found multiple previously unreported instances of the forced sale of property owned by Jews during the Holocaust. It also found that Credit Suisse held accounts for the German foreign office during the Holocaust, which dealt with the deportations of Jews.
Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency plans exclusions tied to business in Judea and Samaria
(JNS) — While a high-profile Israel boycott bill has reportedly stalled in Ireland, the country’s National Treasury Management Agency is moving ahead with an investment strategy that could achieve a similar outcome.
According to a Jan. 17 report in The Times, the NTMA plans to use a United Nations database of companies doing business in Judea and Samaria and eastern Jerusalem to exclude “certain companies” from investments by the Future Ireland Fund, a government sovereign wealth fund valued at approximately $14.8 billion.
The fund’s published investment guidelines state that investments may be excluded based on specific criteria and that “a small number of discretionary exclusions have been so identified to date,” including companies in several categories. Among those categories are “certain companies listed on the United Nations database of business enterprises involved in specified activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
The U.N. database — widely criticized as a blacklist — was approved by then- U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, a former Chilean president and outspoken critic of Israel. Bachelet was nominated last week as a candidate to serve as the next secretary-general of the United Nations.
The database, which has since been expanded, includes not only Israeli companies but also several large American and European entities, such as Motorola and Airbnb.
Israeli immune-cell therapy tested for Alzheimer’s in mice
(JNS) — Scientists at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science, in collaboration with Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, have adapted the same immune-cell technology that revolutionized cancer treatment to combat Alzheimer’s disease in mice.
The study, published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, marks the first time that chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy — pioneered more than three decades ago at Weizmann by the late professor Zelig Eshhar — has been applied to a neurodegenerative disorder.
Led by professor Ido Amit of Weizmann’s Systems Immunology Department and professor Jonathan Kipnis, a Weizmann alumnus now at Washington University, the research team genetically engineered immune cells to target amyloid-beta proteins, which form plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. When injected into mouse models with such plaques, the modified cells significantly reduced amyloid buildup and inflammation markers.
“This is the first CAR-T cell approach for a neurodegenerative disease,” said Kipnis. Amit added that future work may explore how engineered immune cells could help repair brain tissue or address conditions such as ALS and Parkinson’s disease.
Weizmann, a leading research campus located in Rehovot just south of Tel Aviv, sustained extensive damage when it was struck during an Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israel in June 2025.
Map of Israeli targets goes up in Tehran as tensions simmer ahead of Netanyahu’s White House visit
(JTA) — Iran has erected a map showing Israeli targets for potential strikes in a prominent propaganda spot as another week dawns with uncertainty over whether it will face a U.S. attack.
The map went up over the weekend in Tehran’s Palestine Square, a frequent site for billboards meant to broadcast the Islamic Republic’s bravado when it comes to Israel and the United States. It includes the words “You start, we finish!”
It comes as President Donald Trump continues to weigh military intervention against Iran and as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plans to visit the White House to press for his demands in Trump’s negotiations with Iran.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet with US President Donald Trump this Wednesday in Washington, and will discuss with him the negotiations with Iran,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Saturday. “The Prime Minister believes any negotiations must include limitations on ballistic missiles and a halting of the support for the Iranian axis.”
A will-he-or-won’t-he air has pervaded for weeks as Trump has considered different strategies for dealing with Iran, which has said it would view both U.S. and Israeli targets as legitimate if the United States strikes to curb its nuclear ambitions, less than a year after the last U.S. attack on Iranian sites, which came during a war between Iran and Israel.
Netanyahu sees growing ties with the Serb Republic
(JNS) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that he expects to see growing ties with the Republic of Srpska following the country’s presidential elections.
“Congratulations to Siniša Karan on your election as new President of the Republic of Srpska,” Netanyahu wrote on X. “This strong vote of confidence in the leadership of the SNSD & former pres. Dodik signals a path forward to ever closer friendship and cooperation between Israel & the Republic of Srpska.”
Republika Srpska, also referred to as the Republic of Srpska or the Serb Republic, was established in 1992 and is one of the two confederal entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the others being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Last month, Netanyahu hosted two Bosnian Serb leaders in Jerusalem and thanked them for their strong support and stance against antisemitism.
Both sides expressed a desire to deepen ties between the countries and to cooperate on various issues.
