Ally Italy from unusually fierce criticism of Netanyahu

Two top ministers in the Italian government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni have expressed unusually harsh criticism of Israel, an ally of Italy. In one interview With the Roman newspaper Il Messaggero Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani of the right-wing liberal Forza Italia says that Italy “absolutely condemns” the invasion plan for Gaza of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He warns that Gaza’s invasion is in danger of turning into a Vietnam for the Israeli soldiers. “

The Italian Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, co-founder of Meloni’s party Brothers of Italy and a confidant of the Prime Minister, also speaks clear language. “We are not dealing with a military operation with ancillary damage, but with a pure denial of the law and the fundamental values of our civilization,” says Crosetto against the newspaper La Stampa From Turin. According to Crosetto, a way must be sought to bring Netanyahu to reason.

The explanation that this would be legal self -defense after the terror act by Hamas is no longer convincing, according to the defense minister, which blames the Netanyahu government to follow a “fundamentalist line”. “Now we are dealing with a completely different project, namely the conquest of other people’s territory, amid a humanitarian disaster.” Crosetto also calls the methods of Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin “dangerously similar.”

Now we are faced with a completely different project, namely the conquest of other people’s territory, amid a humanitarian disaster

The harsh criticism is striking, since the Meloni government regards itself as a loyal ally of Israel. After the United States and Germany, Italy – albeit to a much smaller extent – is the third exporter from weapons to Israel. Opposite the newspaper Il Messaggero Says foreign minister Tajani that Italy has no weapons to Israel anymore since the terror act on 7 October 2023.

Historical ‘guilt’

There are several reasons for the good relationship between Italy and Israel. The radical-right Prime Minister Meloni conducts an anti-migration rate. Meloni and her party members often warned of the so -called danger of ‘ompletation’, a conspiracy theory in which a ‘globalistic elite’ would bring in Muslim migrants to replace the original inhabitants and overthrow Western, Christian culture. Meloni places that closer to Israel than with the Palestinians, which are mainly Muslims.

The historical ‘debt’ should also not be underestimated. Meloni’s party brothers of Italy has roots in neofascism. After Germany, fascist Italy also introduced the racial laws, with the great deportation of the Jews from the ghetto from Rome to Auschwitz as the absolute low point. The Italian Prime Minister believes it is very important to maintain good relationships with the Jewish community in Rome, which is close to Netanyahu’s Upgers Government, the most extremely right in Israeli history.

When Italy still criticizes Israel, national interests often also play a role. In October last year, Defense Minister Crosetto was already very critical of Israel, which at the time had attacked UN blue helmets in South Lebanon. There are a thousand Italian peace soldiers in Lebanon. This time also plays a role in the criticism of Israel’s invasion and occupation plans, is the fate of the small Christian community in the Palestinian Gaza Strip, one of the oldest in the world.

Eyewitness report

The Italian Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, recently returned from a visit to Gaza, which remains hermetically sealed for foreign journalists. His eyewitness report on the horrors caused turmoil in Italy. The fact that the expulsion of all Palestinians from Gaza City would also affect the Christian community affects a sensitive chord in cultural Catholic Italy.

However, public opinion certainly does not sympathize with the Christians, but increasingly with all Palestinians. By one survey By YouTrend, at the end of July by the newspaper La Repubblica Published, 65 percent of the participants consider the Israeli response to the Hamas terrorist act as disproportionate and find 63 percent that Israel commits genocide.

The Palestinian flag is missing in Italy at almost no summer festival and is very visible in the streets. It is also difficult for sentiment to ignore the government in Rome.

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