Ankara froze political and military relations with Paris last week after the French National Assembly passed a law making it a crime to deny the 1915 Armenian genocide . . . Turkish nationalist groups retaliated with cyber attacks against French government websites and several politicians have received death threats . . . the Israeli Knesset Committee on Education held a three-hour hearing on December 26 to discuss the possible recognition of the Armenian genocide . . . the bill is opposed by the Prime Minister’s Office and the Foreign Ministry, which are concerned over the deteriorating relationship between Jerusalem and Ankara . . . French President Nicolas Sarkozy is likely promoting the bill in order to fulfill a campaign promise to famous Armenian singer Charles Aznavour . . . support from Aznavour could help Sarkozy in the upcoming elections to obtain the support of around 500,000 French-Armenian voters . . . relations will likely further deteriorate as Ankara is expected to engage in extensive economic retaliation especially because French banks have assets of more than $20 billion in Turkey and French automakers control a fifth of the Turkish market . . . the Knesset likely views the legislation as more politically viable due to the strained relationship with Ankara . . . if relations were more friendly, the Knesset would be more hesitant to provoke Turkey over this issue.