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-Caveat Lector-
http://www.guardian.co.uk/italy/story/0,12576,1091917,00.html
Mussolini's heir on Israel trip as Italian party alters image
Sophie Arie in Rome
Monday November 24, 2003
The Guardian
Gianfranco Fini, leader of the Alleanza Nazionale and Italy's deputy prime
minister, began an official visit to Israel yesterday in an attempt to remake
his party's neo-fascist image and fashion himself as a respectable
conservative leader.
Mr Fini, who founded the AN out of the ashes of Benito Mussolini's
Movimento Socialista Italiana (MSI) in 1994, has turned the party line
around in the past 10 years.
In 1994 he called Mussolini the greatest politician of the 20th century.
Eight years later he retracted the comment, condemning him for racial
laws that led to the deportation of 6,000 Italian Jews to Nazi death camps.
He has now become one of Europe's most vociferous supporters of Israel.
Despite EU concern at Israel's "security fence" in the West Bank, and the
Pope's comment that "the Holy Land doesn't need walls, but bridges", Mr
Fini has supported the barrier as a necessary means of self-defence.
In a recent poll, Italy emerged as the only EU member state where the
majority of citizens do not consider Israel a threat to world peace.
Its centre-right government pledged at meetings in Rome with the Israeli
leader, Ariel Sharon, last week to tackle rising anti-Israeli sentiment in
Europe. This hostility, Mr Fini said, was the result of a "sparse knowledge
of history" and dislike for the Israeli leader.
Mr Sharon described Italy as "the closest friend we have in Europe". "Fini is
a good and friendly leader," he told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "I
know of the criticism aimed at him, but I think it's a good thing he's coming
to Israel ... It is time to look to the future, not to the past."
During his four-day visit, Mr Fini will meet Israeli government and opposition
leaders and visit a Holocaust memorial.
Critics claim that the visit is part of Mr Fini's domestic political strategy to
turn the AN into a respectable alternative to Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia
party.
Israeli state radio commented that Mr Fini was convinced that the road to
the Italian premiership "passes through Jerusalem".
Suave and level-headed, Mr Fini - who cringed visibly when the Italian
prime minister compared a German MEP to a Nazi concentration camp
guard this summer - has softened his party's stance on other key issues in
recent months, most notably calling for immigrants to be given the vote.
Earlier this year, he suggested that he might withdraw from the coalition
government to concentrate on his party.
But the AN remains closely linked to Italy's fascist past. Alessandra
Mussolini, granddaughter of Benito, is a party deputy in Naples and a firm
defender of her grandfather, who she believes is unfairly represented in
history books.
In an attempt to purge the AN of its pro-fascist ranks, Mr Fini last week
called for the expulsion of a party deputy, Antonio Serena. Mr Serena had
distributed a video to MPs in praise of a convicted Nazi war criminal, Erich
Priebke, who took part in the murder of 335 civilians in Rome in 1944.
The interior minister, Giuseppe Pisanu, warned this week that Italy, which
has been a stalwart supporter of the US-led intervention in Iraq, faces a
growing threat of terrorist attacks. Jewish targets in the country are on
increased alert.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
Forwarded for your information. The text and intent of the article
have to stand on their own merits.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material
is distributed without charge or profit to those who have
expressed a prior interest in receiving this type of information
for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do
not believe simply because it has been handed down for many genera-
tions. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and
rumoured by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is
written in Holy Scriptures. Do not believe in anything merely on
the authority of teachers, elders or wise men. Believe only after
careful observation and analysis, when you find that it agrees with
reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all.
Then accept it and live up to it." The Buddha on Belief,
from the Kalama Sutra
www.ctrl.org
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
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