Italian Leaders Unite to Support Israel

AP Images/Sebastian Scheiner

As current threats develop in Israel, citizens of the Jewish State
can expect support from Italian leaders.

Political leaders from the Italian Senate, along with
representatives from civil society and faith communities, gathered in
the Italian Senate building on Thursday to express their support for
Israel in the midst of a new Gaza flotilla, a unilateral declaration
of a Palestinian state in September and other forms of
delegitimization of the Jewish State.

“Our Western democracies will not prevail unless we re-embrace
our Judeo-Christian heritage,” said Marcello Pera, former president
of the Italian Senate, as he expressed the Italian sentiment well.
“Our support for Israel should not be based on guilt, but rather on
pride in our common roots and values.

“Defending Israel simply means defending our values and our way
of life,” he concluded.

Pera was the first person to sign an open letter to the United
Nations written by the European Coalition for Israel, which asks the
secretary general to prevent a unilateral declaration of a
Palestinian State at the UN General Assembly in September, and to
promote direct negotiations between the Israeli government and the
Palestinians.

Earlier in the week the open letter was also signed by the
Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, MEP
Gabriele Albertini, indicating that there is strong opposition to the
current official EU policy, which most observers say is regarded as
biased and pro-Palestinian.

In his keynote speech, Jacques Gauthier presented the conflicting
legal claims to Jerusalem which belongs to the Jews, according to his
25-year research. Gauthier pointed out the critical role played by
the Government of Italy after World War I in paving the way for the
birth of the Jewish State.

Italy was one of the members of the Supreme Council of the Allied
Powers which hosted the San Remo Conference in April, 1920. The
historical conference incorporated the legal rights of the Jewish
people to the land of Israel into international law. Today Italy is
one of only a few EU-member states that has clearly stated that it
will oppose a unilateral declaration at the UN in September.

The symposium, organized by European Coalition for Israel and
Christians for Israel in partnership with Italian senator Lucio
Malan, was part of an ongoing information campaign concerning
Israel’s legal rights, in preparation for the UN General Assembly
vote in September.

MEP Magdi Cristiano Allam noted in his speech that “a
Palestinian state was proclaimed at the UN once before in the ’80s,
but with very little effect.

“Proclamations do not change the realities on the ground,”
he said, as he urged the EU-member states not to vote for Palestinian
statehood at this time.

Conference host Malan asked those attending the conference “to
defend Israel unless we want to give up our roots, our freedom and
our democracy.”

Previous ECI conferences about Israel’s legal rights have been
held in The Hague, Brussels and Berlin.