Not in our name

The real threat to Europe doesn’t come from Moscow — but from Israel

English translation of an article by Marco Travaglio originally published in Italian in Il Fatto Quotidiano.

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Benjamin Netanyahu, the world’s most ruthless terrorist, has once again managed to delay his political downfall using the only method he knows: war.

Except now his private war — masked as self-defence against the Evil Empire of the ayatollahs who dare to want nuclear weapons like Israel has — now risks dragging his allies into a third world war. If it were up to him, it would have already started. In twenty months, he has opened seven fronts in other people’s countries as if they were his own: Gaza, the West Bank, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Yet none of his allies, beyond the usual pious words and condemnations, have done anything to distance themselves from him.

Clearly, the narrative of the aggressor and the victim applies to Russia and Ukraine, but not to Israel and its neighbours: otherwise Tel Aviv would have faced sanctions far more devastating than those imposed on Moscow. Instead they have received zero sanctions.

One might say: but Israel is an ally of the US and the EU. True, but that’s precisely the problem: if it were our enemy, we could cynically ignore its massacres. But because it’s an ally, we cannot: this makes us complicit in its crimes and puts us in the crosshairs of Islamic terrorism, as well as Iran. And if they have to choose whom to strike, they’ll start with those closest to — or least distant from — Netanyahu.

Trump, who tried to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue through negotiations, involving the Sunni satrapies and, behind the scenes, Putin and Xi, is now distancing himself from the attack. But he hasn’t abandoned his out-of-control ally, the one who is bombing the negotiating table (one of the targets being Tehran’s negotiator) and dragging him by the hair towards total war.

But the most incredible case is that of the EU and Italy. Instead of chasing the ridiculous ghosts of a Russian invasion and provoking Moscow with a reckless rearmament, they should acknowledge that the real threat comes from Israel, which is turning the Middle East and North Africa against us. Hence they should:

– end the war in Ukraine as soon as possible;
– restore friendly relations with Russia and China;
– cut all ties with Tel Aviv as long as it’s governed by the terrorist Netanyahu;
– and involve the three great powers in a global negotiation to glue together the shards of this piecemeal world war before it’s too late.

Instead, after their belated squeaks about Gaza, they are squarely back on Bibi’s side once again. For many years, since the 1970s, Italy acted as a bridge between the West and the Arab world, and was always the last target of Islamic terrorism. Now Meloni’s foreign policy is painting a target on the backs of all of us citizens.

If these faux-sovereignists haven’t yet dared to condemn Netanyahu for the slaughtered Gazans, let them at least do it now — for us Italians.

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Thomas Fazi

Website: thomasfazi.net

Twitter: @battleforeurope

Latest book: The Covid Consensus: The Global Assault on Democracy and the Poor—A Critique from the Left (co-authored with Toby Green)