Last Friday some 400,000 Italians took to the streets in support of the Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.  Even though a resolution of the horrific carnage may be in the offing many Italians were riled up by Israelis stopping a flotilla of private yachts heading there with humanitarian supplies.

Italian protestors were energized by the former Communist Party (aka Partito Democratico), labor unions, and Catholic organizations.  Their concern is wholly understandable but their target, Israel, is only half the problem.  Hamas massacred 1,200 Israelis and kidnapped 251 on 7 October 2023.  Only 146 have been released, while 83 have died in captivity, leaving about 22 still rotting in Hamas tunnels.  Why aren’t Italian protestors demanding the release of the 22, which will immediately end the war?

I’m reminded of the 1979 kidnapping of 66 Americans in Iran by Islamic terrorists.  The American media informed us nightly of the number of days of their captivity.  The blame and focus were squarely on Iran.  That hasn’t been the case in Gaza, which leaves Israel as the only culprit and has no doubt given Hamas leverage which is prolonging the suffering.

That leverage has led our allies like France, UK, Spain, and Australia to split from the U.S. and recognize a mythical Palestinian state.  The Italian government under PM Giorgia Meloni has not, demanding first the release of hostages and dissolution of Hamas—quite reasonable.

Both Italy and Germany share a moral obligation to Israel, stemming from the Second World War and the Holocaust. Certainly, Italy’s sins against the Jewish people pale compared to Germany’s.  I will take this opportunity to recall one episode.

For a more complete story, you can go to our Research Library to find Italy and the Holocaust, a detailed report we did in 2015.  For now, let’s turn back the clock to 1938 during the Fascist dictatorship.

The Nazis were turning Germany into a hellhole for Jews.  In March, 1938 Hitler annexed Austria which caused more Jews to seek escape.  President Franklin Roosevelt was lobbied to give refuge to European Jews, but America had its own brand of anti-Semitism which precluded mass immigration. FDR then proposed a convening of 32 democracies in Evian, France to allocate Jewish refugees.  The conference was held that July.  It was a disaster.  Nobody wanted masses of Jews.  Great Britain took 10,000 children, the U.S. hardly any.  (Even the SS St Louis with 930 refugees was turned away in June, 1939.)

Evian made matters worse for Jews.  Hitler now realized that Jews were trapped and vulnerable to even worse privations by his regime.  His stormtroopers unleashed Kristallnacht in November, 1938, the Holocaust’s opening bell.  FDR was in a panic now and trotted out Plan B, an appeal to Mussolini the man who FDR praised for preventing Hitler from invading Czechoslovakia at Munich in September, 1938.

Interestingly, the Fascist dictator, who wasn’t invited to Evian, was taking in Jewish refugees without visas (est. 9,000), more than the United States.  In a series of letters, FDR suggested Mussolini find a homeland for “refugees” (no J word) in newly conquered Abyssinia.  He even picked a nice plateau in southern Abyssinia for settlement.  The Duce responded that the plateau had a hostile native population and suggested a northern area already inhabited by 40,000 Falasha Jews, now enjoying Italian protection from fellow Africans.

It appears that some Jewish groups didn’t like the idea of an African homeland, preferring Palestine.  Mussolini cautioned against mixing Jews and Arabs which had already caused riots in Palestine, then under British rule.  Besides, Mussolini was trying to cultivate an Arab alliance against the Brits and French.  He further suggested Brazil. Russia, or the U.S. as having wide open spaces for immigrants. Of course, nothing came of all this, and Palestine was the destination of Zionists after the war. 

The people that ancient Rome had dispersed; modern Rome must now help survive. –JLM