The solid front of support for Israel by the Italian Jewish community and its non-Jewish friends has been severely shaken during the past few days by the massacre of Palestinians in west Beirut.
Throughout the summer, Italian Jews strongly defended Israel’s invasion of Lebanon against what they saw as an anti-Israel blitz by the local media with overtones of anti-Semitism, But the fact that the west Beirut slaughter was carried out by Lebanese Christian forces closely allied with Israel in a city controlled by the Israeli army, created shock waves and doubts about the wisdom and morality of the Israel government’s policies.
While there has been no diminution of solidarity with Israel, the government of Premier Menachem Begin has been the target of unprecedented criticism by Jews. The Union of Italian Jewish communities, the representative organization of Italian Jewry, sent cables to Begin and to the Knesset in Jerusalem declaring that the tragic events in Lebanon “repel the Jewish conscience.” The messages expressed hope “that those directly or indirectly responsible for the massacre, of whatever side or nationality, be identified and punished.”
If they fell short of calling for Begin’s resignation, that was only because of the unwritten rule that Diaspora Jews have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of Israel. But the message stressed that “only negotiations” can lead to a solution of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The position of the opposition Labor Alignment that Israel should negotiate on the basis of President Reagan’s September I initiative on Palestinian autonomy and the future of the West Bank, was endorsed in a message from the Federation of Italian Jewish Youth.
Other groups of Italian Jews and friends of Israel who are aligned with the Labor Party demanded outright the resignation of what they called the “Begin-Sharon-Eitan” leadership of Israel and the incrimination of those “directly and indirectly responsible for the massacres.”
The implication was that Begin, Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and Chief of Staff Gen. Rafael Eitan were the triumvirate making Israeli policy not necessarily in harmony with the duly elected government. These groups included the youth federation and the Italy-Israel Friendship Association.
ANTI-SEMITIC MANIFESTATIONS IN THE MEDIA
But the condemnations of the Begin government were paralleled by warnings of anti-Semitism manifest in some sections of the Italian press. Italy’s Chief Rabbi, Elio Toaff, appeared on the major television newscast Monday night. Introducing him, the program director took pains to point out that while Jews and Christians were involved in the Beirut massacre, that had nothing to do with either Judaism or Christianity.
The Chief Rabbi called for the punishment of those responsible. He also warned that “A people cannot be considered responsible in its entirety. Only those who are guilty must bear the consequences.”
Guido Fubini, a member of the executive board of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities sent a cable to Israel Monday expressing Italian Jewry’s condemnation of those responsible. In a newspaper interview published yesterday, he noted that while he has received hoards of telegrams from individual Jews dissociating themselves from Israel’s actions, he has not seen one telegram or letter from Italian Christians dissociating themselves from the Lebanese Christians who committed the atrocities.
REMINDER: There will be no Bulletin dated September 27 and 28, Yom Kippur.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
