Analysts are heavily criticizing the Swiss government’s refusal to join European Union sanctions against Iran’s energy and financial sectors, a policy which is particularly complicated in light of Switzerland’s history of trading with Nazi Germany in WWII, its welcome of Hamas leaders, and of rising anti-Israel sentiment throughout the country. The United States has long expressed concerns about Switzerland’s role in undermining sanctions on Iran, objecting in 2010 to a Swiss-Iran gas deal and expressing concern this summer over oil and bank ties. Calls by Swiss Jewish leaders for Bern to join the international community have gone largely unheeded.

[Photo: Bellavista1957 / WikiCommons]