During World War II, thousands of Jews fled to the island of Corsica from mainland France. The local Gentiles, famously tight-lipped, refused to hand them over the Vichy authorities. More recently, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary has set up a synagogue in the capital city of Ajaccio. Shmuel Loebenstein describes the island’s Jewish history:

No one knows exactly when the story of Jewish Corsica began. One theory suggests that Pasquale Paoli, [who led Corsica in winning its independence in] 1729, persuaded Jews from Livorno to migrate there to aid in the island’s economic development. Sadly, that initial cohort assimilated, and no descendants are counted among the Jewish community today. Some of Corsica’s most prominent family names, such as Simeoni and Gabrielli [are thought to] bear the legacy of those early settlers.

The next influx of Jews came from Tiberias in the early 20th century. Their safety had become imperiled when the region, then under Ottoman rule, was plunged into the chaos of World War I. The French allowed 800 of them to flee to Corsica and start new lives on the other side of the Mediterranean. They set up shop in Bastia, the port city in Corsica’s north . . . [and] built the Beth Meir Synagogue, which continues to function; the nucleus of today’s Jewish establishment are descendants of those Tiberias refugees. . . .

Many of [of Ajaccio’s Jews nowadays] are former residents of France proper, anxious to set up their home on this Mediterranean paradise while still enjoying the benefits of French citizenship. There is a feeling that Corsica has remained free of the tensions that have gripped Jews on the mainland in recent times, and that it will welcome and protect Jews as it did in the 1940s.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.