Netanyahu ‘divisive’ in urging move to Israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu managed to ruffle a few feathers while taking part in the Charlie Hebdo rally in Paris on Sunday. It was an event his office initially said he would not be attending for security reasons.

Perhaps most awkward was his invitation to French Jews — alarmed by the Paris attacks and the killing of four people at a kosher supermarket — to migrate to Israel if they wanted, leaving French Prime Minister Manuel Valls scrambling to reassure the community it was safe and an integral part of France.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the head of the European Jewish Association, was particularly stern, saying Aliyah — the process of Jews migrating to Israel — was not the answer to everything, even if it was an important policy for the state of Israel.