Opposition leader: Italy should avoid shipping weapons to the Middle East, ‘particularly Israel.’

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

In response to political criticism, Italy’s Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani told the Italian press that Italy had stopped all arms shipments to Israel starting on October 7th, as reported by ANSA.

Tajani who belongs to the conservative Forza Italia party was responding in the media to criticisms made by Social Democratic opposition leader Elly Schlein that Italy should avoid shipping weapons to the Middle East, “particularly Israel.”

She said, “We cannot risk weapons being used to commit what could be construed as war crimes.”

Tajani replied to the press that Schlein was “misinformed” and he added, “Since October 7, we have decided not to send any more arms to Israel, so there is no need to discuss this point.”

Before October 7th, 5% of Israel’s overseas arm shipments came from Italy.

In other interviews, Tajani said he would commit Italian troops to a peacekeeping mission in Gaza if needed.

Tajani is a retired Air Force officer who took the lead of Forza Italia after the death of its chairman Silvio Berlusconi who was prime minister for a total of 9 years.

Tajani made a solidarity trip to Israel soon after October 7th and declared that Israel had the right to defend itself within the boundaries of international law.

Since then he has been at times critical of the IDF, including the shooting inside of a Gaza church, and has also supported a proposal that would bring about an end to the war through a ceasefire, a policy Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.

However, Tajani opposed South Africa’s claim that Israel has committed war crimes and said that although the IDF has killed civilians in Gaza, Israel isn’t guilty of genocide.

The former head of Forza Italia, Berlusconi was highly controversial, but a strong supporter of Israel and even proposed that the Jewish State be a member of the European Union.

Berlusconi also sold 30 fighter jets to Israel for a billion dollars.

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Berlusconi “was a great friend of Israel and stood by us at all times,” Netanyahu said.

By Associated Press and World Israel News Staff

Sylvio Berlusconi, Italy’s longest-serving prime minister and a friend of Israel, passed away Monday at the age of 86.

Berlusconi, who served as premier during 1994-1995, 2001-2006 and 2008-2011, was admitted to the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan on Friday, his second recent hospitalization for treatment of chronic leukemia. His body was driven away from the hospital Monday afternoon in a black van, heading toward his villa outside the city.

A onetime cruise ship crooner, Berlusconi used his television networks and immense wealth to launch his long political career, inspiring both loyalty and loathing.

To admirers, the three-time premier was a capable and charismatic statesman who sought to elevate Italy on the world stage. To critics, he was a populist who threatened to undermine democracy by wielding political power as a tool to enrich himself and his businesses.

His Forza Italia political party was a coalition partner with current Premier Giorgia Meloni, a right-wing leader who came to power last year, although he held no position in the government. Berlusconi’s friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin was a source of tension between him and Meloni.

Berlusconi had refused to recognize a Palestinian state without Israel’s consent.

Addressing the Knesset in February 2010, the late Italian leader said that “the safeguarding of Israel’s safety and its right to exist as a Jewish state is an ethical choice and a moral obligation, against the possibility of the return of anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial and a loss of memory by the West…

“Italy is like a big brother to Israel. We are fighting and will continue to fight together with you against every instance of anti-Semitism in Europe and around the world.”

According to a report by the World Jewish Congress at the time, “Berlusconi was moved to tears when Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the courage the Italian leader’s mother Rosa had shown during World War II, the moment she saw a German policeman trying to arrest a Jewish girl on a train in Milan.”

As told by Netanyahu during Berlusconi’s Knesset visit, “The Italian woman, who was then eight months pregnant, stood between the policeman and the girl. And without a grain of fear, she confronted the German policeman and said to him: ‘You can kill me but look at the faces of the people on the train, I promise you they won’t let you get out alive. With this firm statement, the Italian woman saved the Jewish girl and lit, if only for a moment, a ray of humanistic light and bravery in the great darkness that pervaded all of Europe. That brave woman was called Rosa, and one of her sons is called Silvio Berlusconi, today the prime minister of Italy.”

“I was deeply saddened by the passing of Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family and to the people of Italy,” Netanyahu said in a statement Monday.

“Silvio was a great friend of Israel and stood by us at all times,” he added. “Rest in peace, my friend.”

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 Fiamma Nirenstein of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs says that Italy’s leading Five Star party supports boycotting Israel.

By: Steve Leibowitz, World Israel News, with additional reporting by AP

A rival pair of populist and stridently anti-European Union political forces surged in Italy’s election for Parliament, but without enough support to govern the country alone, projections showed early Monday. With the prospect of a hung Parliament looking increasingly likely, Italy faces a difficult path to the formation of a viable government. “Ungovernable Italy” headlined daily newspaper La Stampa as election results rolled in.

Speaking from Rome, former Italian parliamentarian Fiamma Nirenstein told World Israel News (WIN), “The anti-establishment Five Star party that finished first in the election is very dangerous for Israel because it is outspokenly pro-BDS and generally ignorant of any history or political balance. I expect that the right wing anti-migrant parties can band together to form a government.”

“Unfortunately former president Berlusconi’s party which is very pro-Israel finished with fewer than 14% of the vote. The right wing La Ligo finished second with 19 percent and they are the second big winner. They are right wing and not at all anti-Israel. Anything can still happen with the formation of a new government. But if Five Star is leading the coalition, it could be a very anti-Israel government indeed,” Nirenstein said.

The results are a victory for anti-EU parties and generally point to a Eurosceptic shift in Italy. RAI State TV projections showed the two parties with the most Eurosceptic platforms — the Five Star and the League — together topping the 50% needed to rule Italy. The Five Star Movement was projected to receive 32.5% of the vote, the League nearly 18%.

In projections based on samples from Sunday’s voting, a center-right coalition that included former Premier Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, the anti-immigrant League and a small far-right party had a slight lead over the anti-establishment Five Star Movement.

At the same time, the north-based League, led by Matteo Salvini, was widening its lead on campaign partner Forza Italia, Berlusconi’s party. Projections gave the League 17.7% compared to Forza Italia’s 13.3%. If the final results have the League topping the prevailing coalition, it would determine the tenor of post-election talks on forming a new government and deal another blow to Berlusconi’s political fortunes.

Salvini, 43, who has never held public office in Italy, fed public anger at the EU’s inability to help handle hundreds of thousands of migrants who flooded the country in recent years after being rescued while crossing the Mediterranean Sea.

The leader of Five Star and its candidate for premier is 31-year-old Luigi Di Maio, who has never held a job of any kind. The Five Star Movement considers itself an internet-based democracy, not a party, and views the established parties collectively as a parasitic caste. Whether Di Maio might accept a coalition government deal with the League, which served in all three of Berlusconi’s governments and therefore is the kind of establishment party the Movement loathes, was unclear.

Di Maio led a Five Star delegation to Israel and the Palestinian Authority in 2016. He reportedly did and said all the “right” things as the delegation met with Knesset members, visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum and a memorial to Israeli victims of terror, condemned “any terrorist actions by Hamas” and declared their support for a two-state solution, while calling for renewed dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians.

While touring Palestinian towns and refugee camps, Di Maio pledged that a Five Star government would officially recognize the State of Palestine, condemned the separation wall and settlements in Judea and Samaria, and denounced Israel’s refusal to grant the delegation a permit to visit Gaza.

Headed for a stunning loss in the Italian elections was the Democratic Party, the main partner in the center-left government that has ruled Italy since 2013. Agriculture Minister Maurizio Martina called the projections giving the party just under 20% “a complete defeat.” The Democrats received 25% in 2013 and have occupied the premier’s office since then.

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Israeli analysts weigh in on claims that arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat kept a secret journal describing a deal that turned Italy into “a Palestinian shore on the Mediterranean.”

By: Steve Leibowitz, World Israel News

An exclusive report Sunday, by the Italian L’espresso magazine opened old wounds when it revealed an alleged agreement between the PLO terror organization and Italian leaders, as gleaned from previously unknown secret diaries of the PLO’s founder and first Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat.

According to L’espresso, the 19 volumes of personal writing cover the years between 1985 and 2004, the year Arafat died in a French hospital.

The magazine published only short excerpts of the alleged diaries that dealt with a deal that was reportedly struck with top officials in the Italian government, including former prime ministers Bettino Craxi and Silvio Berlusconi, and foreign minister Giulio Andreotti.

The L’espresso feature brought to light negotiations between Arafat and the Italian government (headed by Craxi and Andreotti) in 1985, during the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off the Egyptian shore by four Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists had planned to travel on the ship to Israel to carry out a murderous attack, but they were accidentally discovered and took over the ship instead, murdering a Jewish-American hostage, Leon Klinghoffer, during the takeover.

The mastermind behind the terrorist group was Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) official Muhammad Zaidan (a.k.a. Muhammad “Abu” Abbas). When Italy had the opportunity to arrest and try Zaidan – or extradite him to the US to stand trial for Klinghoffer’s murder – the diaries claim that Andreotti allowed Abbas to escape justice. Craxi publicly supported the position that there was not enough evidence to allow for Abbas’ extradition.

Italy later sentenced Zaidan in absentia to five terms of life imprisonment for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking. He was also wanted in the US for crimes including terrorism, piracy, and murder. On April 14, 2003, Zaidan was captured by American forces in Iraq while attempting to flee from Baghdad to Syria. Nearly a year later the Pentagon reported that Zaidan had died of natural causes, while in U.S. custody. The PLF accused the Americans of assassinating their leader.

“I am so very sorry that Italy let murderers get away.” That’s how former Italian Member of Parliament and now analyst at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Fiamma Nirenstein reacted when asked about the reported secret deal between Italy and the PLO. According to Arafat, the PLO promised there would be no terror attacks in Italy in exchange for freedom of movement in Italy for its members.

Nirenstein told World Israel News (WIN), “Of course it’s hard to say if a report is true when the source is an alleged Arafat diary. But what I can tell you is that then Prime Minister Bettino Craxi was a great friend of Arafat. It was clear that he gave free reign to the PLO terrorists and this is a terrible shame. It also did not work. The terrorists carried out a few attacks and Italy still allowed the murderers of the Achille Lauro to go free.”

Asked to comment about whether the Italian government also paid the PLO money as Arafat claimed, Nirenstein responded remorsefully, “I have no idea if we gave them money, but if we did it’s unforgivable. You must not pay ransom to terror.”

It had long been rumored that an understanding had been in place between Italy and the PLO since 1973, after a PLO attack on an airport in Rome. The PLO would not target Italians in exchange for Italian acquiescence to the terror group’s objectives. L’espresso reported that in his diaries, Arafat warmly described Italy as “a Palestinian shore on the Mediterranean.”

Former Israeli Ambassador to Italy Avi Pazner told WIN, “It was never officially revealed, but when I was in Italy we all knew that there had been a deal struck in 1973 after the Munich Olympics attack and an attack in Vienna and other attacks on air planes. My understanding is that there was an agreement to cooperate with the PLO if they prevent any terrorist activity in Italy. I did not hear about a financial bribe. The quiet in Italy was mostly maintained until the Achille Lauro which is an Italian ship. There was also an attack on a synagogue in Rome but Arafat claims it was not a PLO action. The PLO viewed Italy as its base in Europe. The Craxi government was openly pro-PLO.”

According to the alleged diaries, Arafat agreed to help Silvio Berlusconi, a three-time prime minister to commit a crime. In return for a handsome gift, Arafat wrote, he confirmed Berlusconi’s false statement to Italian prosecutors that a 10 billion lire grant was given to the Palestinians, rather than to an Italian political party as suspected by police.

Nirenstein entered the Parliament in 2008 in the the People of Freedom party as a close ally of President Silvio Berlusconi. She told WIN that the Italian governments of today would not make such an agreement. “I think the current leader knows that you cannot make a deal with terrorists. They will kill you today or they will kill you tomorrow and the politicians know that,” Nirenstein said.

Asked about reports of Berlusconi’s return to politics she said, “He is making a big effort and I can tell you he is a very good friend of Israel. Maybe Arafat’s reported references to Berlusconi paying him a bribe is an attempt to frame him.”

According to the diaries, Arafat perjured himself for a “considerable sum,” which Berlusconi later provided him. The journals also contain a log of all of the sums of money Arafat allegedly received from the Italian leader.

Jerusalem writer Mathew Kalman co-authored a book titled, The Murder of Yasser Arafat. Kalman told WIN, “I would be surprised if Arafat really kept a journal. A deal between Italy and the PLO was rumored for years but the story was floated by Israel.” According to Kalman there is no hard evidence of a deal with the Italian government.

“The way the Achille Lauro murderers escaped was suspicious but until now there was no evidence of complicity,” he concluded.

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An Italian magazine claims that Palestinian arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat made a secret deal not to attack Italian citizens and accepted bribes from the Italy’s leader.

By: Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

In an exclusive report Sunday, the Italian L’espresso magazine revealed new information about the cordial relationship between the PLO terror organization and the Italian authorities, as gleaned from the secret diaries of the PLO’s founder and first Palestinian Authority president, Yasser Arafat.

The 19 volumes of personal writing cover the years between 1985 and 2004, the year Arafat died in a French hospital. They were given to a French foundation on condition that the content of the diaries would be used only as “study documents,” and would not provide content for books or films.

The diaries detail Arafat’s relationships with many nations’ leaders, including such late presidents as Fidel Castro (Cuba), Saddam Hussein (Iraq), and Shimon Peres (Israel). However, the weekly published translated excerpts dealt with high-up officials in the Italian government, including former prime ministers Bettino Craxi and Silvio Berlusconi, and foreign minister Giulio Andreotti.

In particular, the L’espresso feature brought to light negotiations between Arafat and the Italian government (headed by Craxi and Andreotti) in 1985, during the hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship off the Egyptian shore by four Palestinian terrorists. The terrorists had planned to travel on the ship to Israel to carry out an attack but were accidentally discovered and took over the ship instead, murdering a Jewish-American hostage, Leon Klinghoffer, during the incident.

Intelligence was provided stating that the mastermind behind the group was PLO official Muhammad “Abu” Abbas, but when Italy had the chance to arrest and try him soon after the crisis was over – or extradite him to the US to stand trial for Klinghoffer’s murder – the diaries say that Andreotti allowed Abbas to escape justice. Craxi himself publicly supported the position that there was not enough evidence to allow for Abbas’ extradition.

It had long been rumored that an understanding had been in place between Italy and the PLO since 1973, after a PLO attack on an airport in Rome. The PLO would not target Italians in exchange for Italian acquiescence to its objectives.

L’espresso reported that in his diaries, Arafat warmly described Italy as “a Palestinian shore of the Mediterranean.”

The diaries also revealed how Arafat helped Silvio Berlusconi, a three-time prime minister who was a member of Italy’s parliament in 1998 when he was put on trial for illegally funding the Italian Socialist Party. In return for a handsome gift, Arafat wrote, he confirmed Berlusconi’s false statement to prosecutors that the 10 billion lire which were at the center of the trial were not for the party but for the PLO to support the Palestinian cause.

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