Strauss-Kahn, wife deny they're moving to Israel

French magazine had claimed former IMF chief DSK, wife – who are both Jewish - were planning “a new life in Israel.”

By NADAV SHEMER
Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears on prime time news show (photo credit: REUTERS/TF1/Handout )
Dominique Strauss-Kahn appears on prime time news show
(photo credit: REUTERS/TF1/Handout )
Embattled former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn and his wife Anne Sinclair have denied media reports that they are planning to move to Israel.
The Jewish couple flew to Israel last Thursday, spending the weekend at the Savyon home of French-born businessman Jean Frydman before leaving the country on Monday.
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The trip caused a stir among French media outlets, including celebrity magazine Gala, which reported that the couple was beginning “a new life in Israel.”
The claim was rejected Wednesday by the couple’s media lawyer Richard Malka, who told AFP: “Anne Sinclair and Dominique Strauss-Kahn formally deny ever having envisaged moving to Israel as alleged today by a weekly that could not find any news.”
A number of French newspapers also reported Wednesday that Strauss-Kahn was planning to replace Stanley Fischer as Bank of Israel Governor, a report repeated by some Israeli dailies. The newspapers named their source as French-language Israeli news site JSSNews.com, but the editor of that site said the newspapers misreported what he published.
“The correct information is that [Strauss-Kahn] might have a job in Israel. I wasn’t talking about the Bank of Israel. The information I got was that he was offered the job of consultant for a [private] Israeli firm,” Jonathan-Simon Sellem told The Jerusalem Post Thursday.
Sellem said Strauss-Kahn was most likely planning to make “aliya Boeing” – a term used to describe French Jews who buy a house in Israel, live here in theory, but spend most of the year working abroad. He said that according to two sources close to Strauss-Kahn, the former IMF chief would spend some time in Israel next year, “and when he won’t be here in Israel, he will work for Israeli companies abroad as their representative.”
Strauss-Kahn was considered an early front-runner for the 2012 French presidential elections, but he was forced to abandon the campaign and his job as International Monetary Fund managing director in May after New York prosecutors indicted him over alleged sexual assault and attempted rape. Prosecutors later dropped all charges because of issues over inconclusive evidence and the complainant’s credibility.
French media have continued to report in recent weeks about other alleged sexual transgressions. Lawyers for Strauss-Kahn and Sinclair said this week that the couple will take legal action against newspaper Le Figaro, several magazines and a former adviser to French President Nicolas Sarkozy over the allegations.