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Euroasian Jewish News
Secretary-General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Mikhail Chlenov On His Visit to Italy
18.02.2009
 I visited Rome from 10 to 15 of February as part of the delegation of the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations of the USA. This visit took place as part of the traditional yearly visit of American Jewish leaders to various countries, during which they meet with local Jewish communities and local non-Jewish elites, including, usually, the heads of state. After the end of such a visit, the American leaders head to Israel, where they meet the heads of the State of Israel, as well as parliamentarians and community representatives. During the last six years, the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) has been helping to realize these visits, as well as taking participation in them. The fact that the EAJC and the Conference of Presidents have combined diplomatic missions certainly raises their status, makes them more impressive. However, almost all previous visits have been to countries of the Euro-Asian region – we began with Kazakhstan, then visited Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria, and Romania. During these joint visits regular sessions of the General Council of the EAJC took place, which gave us the opportunity to work out united platforms and outlooks on events which took place in the Jewish world, to show the authorities of the region a consolidated position of the Jews of the world diaspora.
This year, the mission of the Conference of Presidents took place in Italy, meaning that it was outside of our region. This is why I was the only EAJC official who took part in the visit. Its actuality was defined by a number of political circumstances. First of all, it took place almost immediately after the end of the Israel operation in the Gaza sector, which has caused yet another outburst of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel feelings in the countries of Western Europe. Besides, the EU has taken upon itself serious obligations to regulate the state of events in Gaza in the period of the aftermath of the war, particularly concerning the control over Hamas weaponry smuggling. Among EU countries, Italy stands out as, on one hand, a country with an explicit pro-Israel policy that the current government upholds, but on the other, its economic ties with Iran are the strongest in all of Europe.
The meeting with the Italian Prime Minister took place on the 16th of February in his residence and began with his short, but very comprehensive speech, dedicated mostly to the events in the Near East. Berlusconi reminded the gathered of the fact that the Italian government was the first in Europe to recognize HAMAS as a terroristic organization. The essence of HAMAS actions could be plainly seen during the latest operations, when terrorists, under Israeli fire themselves, both murdered and drove to death the citizens of their own region, including women and children. It was Berlusconi's opinion that the best course of action for Israel would be to work out a government of national unity according to the formula 27+28+15, and with the same Ministry of Defense. According to Egyptian president Mubarak, a truce will be negotiated soon. A positive factor in this is the appointment of the American emissary Mitchell, who is trusted by everyone. The future peace in the Near East might be established by the creation of a "Marshall's plan" for Palestine. Italy will include this question on the agenda for the nearest expanded meeting of the "big eight." This meeting will include representatives of India, China, Brasil – representatives 63 percent of the world's population in total. According to the Italian Prime Minister, it is necessary to build an airport on the Western coast, to arrange the tourism of Catholic pilgrims to Bethlehem, to build hotels, to reduce the economic gap between Israel and Palestine. The Italian government expects an understanding of the importance of these plans from the new American president Barack Obama. A hope was voiced that he, as we do, considers it inadmissible to allow Iran to gain nuclear weaponry, and resolutely denounces the call of the President of Iran to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth.
When answering to my question on the role of Russia in the nearest steps taken to regulate the crisis in the Near East, Berlusconi answered that he is expecting the Russian leadership to influence Iran and Syria positively, with the aim to bar the supply of arms to Hezbollah through Syrian territory.
Secretary-General of the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress Mikhail Chlenov
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