JERUSALEM CENTER FOR PUBLIC AFFAIRS / Jewish Political Studies Review: The purpose of this article is to analyze and confute some of the arguments recently put forward by important Italian intellectuals against Jews and against Israel. Neo anti-Semitism camouflaged as anti-Zionism is spreading in Italy today. Three main examples of this phenomenon are given: Sergio Romano, Alberto Asor Rosa, and Barbara Spinelli. Romano claims that the memory of the Shoah has become an insurance policy and is used by Israel as a diplomatic weapon, while Israel itself is "a war-mongering, imperialist, arrogant nation" and "an unscrupulous liar."
Asor Rosa claims that Israel "developed a marvelous army" but at the same time "the tradition and thinking melted away," while Israel affirms, he writes, "the racial superiority of the Jewish people." For Barbara Spinelli: "Israel constitutes a scandal" for the way in which Moses' religion validates "rights which are often meta-historical" and "linked to sacred texts." Spinelli thinks that Israel should express its culpability to Palestinians and Islam. She goes as far as stating that some Israelis dream "of a sort of second holocaust." She also attacks the "double and contradictory loyalty" of the Jews.
There is a short analysis of the Italian press and of the stand of the Catholic Church. The lynch in Ramallah is discussed, as well as the declarations of Ambassador Vento. The author also raises the question of school textbooks, the boycott against Israeli universities, and the existence of other voices, very different from the ones mentioned above.
Italy had always been considered a country immune to anti-Semitism, which is why the racial laws imposed by the fascists in 1938 and the ensuing atrocities of the republic of Salò had such a traumatic effect upon the Jews. One could hope that a similar phenomenon would never recur after the liberation. However anti-Semitism has come back even if there are no racial laws these days, and it is often hidden behind attacks against Sharon's politics. Anti-Semitic accusations blame all the Jews for crimes they never committed.1
Such signs of anti-Semitism are not new. At times anti-Semitism is camouflaged as anti-Zionism, as Gianni Scipione Rossi writes in his recent book: "Anti-Zionism interprets the role of a 'presentable' mask of a much more profound aversion."2 A strong worsening of this situation was noted during the period of the war in Lebanon in 1982-3, and the results were immediately felt. The PLO took advantage of an atmosphere favorable to it and organized a terrorist attack against the main synagogue on the Lungotevere in Rome on the day of the blessing of the children (9 October 1982), that murdered Stefano, aged two.
A few years later, in 1988, the chief rabbi of Rome, Elio Toaff, voiced a serious warning following anti-Semitic occurrences in the capital:
The threats, the anonymous letters, the revolting graffiti, and the outrageous deeds which have taken place these days could be the prelude to more shameful actions, not only against the Jews. I feel I am reliving the climate of fifty years ago, which preceded the approval of the racial laws by the fascist regime.>>> Sergio I. Minerbi | Fall 2003
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