Zionism and the Jews were the butts of strong attacks by two important Italian newspapers today, the Havas News Agency reported.
Although no official anti-Semitic campaign was under way, sections of the press, including the influential Milan newspaper Il Popolo d’ Italia-which was founded by Premier Benito Mussolini and is edited by his nephew-openly carried on the offensive begun some weeks ago to bring Jews into line with Fascist ideology.
Il Popolo, after arguing the incompatibility of Zionism with Fascism, printed letters from several Italian Jews in which the latter solemnly repudiated Zionism, branded as a pro-British, anti-German movement.
Amplifying this argument, the extremist Rome newspaper Il Tovero assailed the “sainted ingenuousness” of these who believe the Jewish problem will be solved by Jewish oaths of loyalty to Italian Fascism.
“The solution consists in a severe control of their (the Jews’) activities,” Il Tevere asserted, “and in a revision of their values, judgments, tendencies and orientations, so that they may cease being deformed and poisoned by a mentality which is completely foreign to the Italian mind.”
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