Contrary to what many Israelis believe, the Jewish state has many supporters in Europe, “but they are in need of relevant information,” says IDSF founder and chairman Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi.
By Josh Hasten, JNS
The lower house of the Italian Parliament passed a multifaceted pro-Israel resolution in July while condemning the surge in global antisemitism following the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel.
According to the Israel Defense and Security Forum, a series of meetings between IDSF and Chamber of Deputies officials a few weeks before the vote had a strong influence on the resolution’s wording.
“Over the past year, we have found ourselves getting more involved in educating parliaments throughout the E.U. about the situation on the ground in Israel,” IDSF founder and chairman Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi told JNS. “Israelis often feel that Europeans don’t like us or don’t support Israeli policy, but I can say that from engagements with high-level officials and army generals, we have many supporters, but they are in need of relevant information to understand the issues.”
The resolution condemned the Hamas terrorist organization while also equating the PLO/Palestinian Authority with Hamas, with lawmakers stating that both Hamas and the P.A. are equally unacceptable choices for governing Gaza after the current war.
The Italian resolution did endorse a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and call for a “two-state solution,” but suggested the promotion of Arab moderates, represented by families or clans, to take over control of Gaza instead of the above-mentioned entities.
The deputies also called for the implementation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, to make clear to Iran and its terrorist proxies that the Italian contingent of UNIFIL peacekeepers in Southern Lebanon will not tolerate aggressive movement toward Israel by Hezbollah or any other force in Lebanon.
Finally, the resolution adopted a strong definition of antisemitism, according to which “antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews that can be expressed as hatred for Jews. Manifestation of verbal and physical anti-Semitism are directed towards Jews or non-Jews and/or their properties, towards Jewish community institutions and buildings used for worship.”
Avivi added, “With the challenges Europe is facing in terms of radical Islam, there is more of a realization that Israel is really on the front lines of western society, and if Israel doesn’t succeed, then it will become something Europe has to deal with afterwards.”
Avivi said one of the biggest changes he witnessed, as reflected in the Italian resolution, is that “more Europeans are understanding that the P.A. is part of the problem and not the solution.”
There is also an understanding, he said, that “the P.A. doesn’t have the support of Palestinian society, and there is a growing awareness [in Europe]that they are in fact paying billions to terrorists. Once we started presenting alternatives to these officials, not based on Hamas or the P.A. assuming control the day after [the war in Gaza], it became easier to convince parliaments there is a need for a change in attitude.”
IDSF has been engaged and active in Italy since well before Oct. 7. In fact, Avivi testified before the Italian Parliament on Sept. 20, 2023, just days before Hamas’s deadly infiltration, about the threat that Iran posed to Italy and the likelihood that Israel was headed for full-scale war with the Islamic Republic in the near future.
IDSF recently had eight separate meeting with officials in Brussels, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, the Czech Republic and Poland to discuss the realities on the ground in Israel and to offer alternative approaches regarding what Avivi says is a must: “the deradicalization of Gazan society.”
Avivi said he had explained to the officials that Hamas must be destroyed in Gaza and not allowed to rebuild. “The IDF must have freedom of operation [in Gaza]similar to Judea and Samaria. You can’t deradicalize what children from the age of three are getting unless you have a presence there,” he said.
“We explained to these officials that this is a long-term process. We don’t want to control Gaza long term, but if you look at World War II the allies maintained a four-year military occupation of Germany, and six years with Japan, which enabled the Marshall Plan. Long term, we’re talking about local clans taking over, with cantons like in Switzerland, or emirates. But it can’t be Hamas. A win for Hamas will empower every radical Muslim in the world,” he said.
Itai Medina, a former IDF general in the Prime Minister’s Office and an IDSF advisory board member, told JNS that the goal of meeting with the Italian deputies prior to the vote was “to provide an honest, modest, clear and nonbiased professional view of what’s happening in Israel, and to spread the truth, while justifying what Israel is doing.”
He said, “I think having a dialogue, regardless if they are from the left or the right, without any mediators present, allowed them to ask us direct questions, and we gave direct answers.”
Medina said that while initially Israel had support from the world community following the Oct. 7 massacre, “After three or four months, we found ourselves in a position in which we had to justify our actions. You had politicians in the United States, some progressive organizations, even our friends in the White House thinking we were the aggressors. Therefore, any resolutions that paint us in a negative light, accuse us of be the aggressors, or claim we’re targeting civilians, must be challenged.”
Medina said he shared with his European counterparts how much Israel did to help disrupt Islamic State attacks on European soil, through intelligence sharing. “But when it came to us [Israel fighting Hamas] we came to those same friends, and how come we didn’t get the same support?” he asked.
However, Medina said the passing of the resolution shows the Italians understand the situation.
“Italy is a prominent country in Europe, who decided to identify with us, and back the moral side in this global campaign. What starts with Israel spreads to other world capitals. This is a global war of civilizations, from Al-Qaeda to ISIS to Hamas. I’m glad decision makers in Italy were willing step forward and commit to supporting this view, even without Paris or London leading the way,” he said.
Elie Pieprz, IDSF’s director of international relations, told JNS that as a result of Avivi’s testimony to the Italian parliament last September, “when there was a movement in Italy in June (2023) to actually pass a resolution recognizing a Palestinian state, there were already a number of elected officials in Italy who understood why that was a terrible policy for both Italy as well as the Middle East, and wanted to prevent that outcome.”
Pieprz explained that, “Even though resolutions are not binding on a government, it sends a very strong message of where the parliament stood on the issue. The idea of presenting the Palestinian cause with political victory as a consequence of Oct. 7 would be a terrible lesson, for Hamas, Iran and all terrorists worldwide.”
He added: “While the resolution did call for a ceasefire, it did so only after Israel completed its war missions, of defeating Hamas and returning all of the hostages. Getting an influential European country to codify Israel’s war goals into a resolution was exactly the kind of support that Israel’s war effort needed.”
The resolution also achieved two other “substantial victories” for Israel, he said. “It declared both the P.A. and Hamas equally unacceptable to rule in Gaza when the war ends, and that the ideal future leaders of Gaza are local families or clans that are not connected to terrorists. And this passed unanimously in the Italian Parliament, without a public campaign,” he noted.
“So, ultimately, an effort to constrain Israel and support our enemies ended up affirming Israel’s war goals in a very dramatic manner—that is the power of quiet diplomacy,” he concluded.