Jewish & World News

During the inauguration of a Holocaust memorial in Milan, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Benito Mussolini's fascist regime had carried out some positive policies. “The fact of the racial laws was the worst fault of a leader, Mussolini, who in many other ways did well,” Berlusconi said in informal remarks to the media at the ceremony on Sunday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The memorial dedicated at Milan’s train station is located at Track 21, from which 700 Milan Jews were deported to Nazi camps.

Italy's prime minister has called for empathy for all victims, whether of the Holocaust or Israel's  war on Gaza. Silvio Berlusconi's link between the Holocaust and the plight of the Palestinians could land him in hot water with his Israeli hosts, who have given him a warm welcome. In a speech in Jerusalem, Berlusconi said Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza last year was justified self-defense. But during a stop in the West Bank, he later explained this does not rule out sympathy for the war's victims. some 1,400 Palestinians were killed in the fighting. Berlusconi said, "Just as it's right to cry for the victims of the Shoah, it's right to show pain for what happened in Gaza." Shoah is the Hebrew word for Holocaust. Berlusconi first arrived in Ramallah, where he met with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The two then toured the city of Bethlehem, where the Italian premier visited the Church of the Nativity. 'Unilateral declaration...

"It was like being punched in the stomach," Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said after visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem Monday evening along with a number of his ministers. Berlusconi's entourage was accompanied by Education Minister Gideon Saar and Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev. At the end of the tour Berlusconi laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and signed the Yad Vashem Guest book. "Our soul screams out – 'This cannot be'. Then it jolts and bellows - Never again!'," he wrote. Shalev said the Italian premier was clearly moved by the visit. "He faced things that he could not even grasp and said he would remember the experience for a long time to come," said the museum chairman. What particularly caught the Italian leader's attention was a photo album from Auschwitz and statistics on the number of European Jews killed during the war. Earlier Monday, Berlusconi said his "greatest desire...

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who is on an official visit to Israel, said Monday that his "greatest desire" is to see Israel join the European Union. Berlusconi met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later described the meeting as "extremely important" to Jerusalem's relations with Rome. The meeting, he said, stressed the two nations' commitment to work together in the future. Berlusconi added that he follows Israeli politics and "can't help but feel the unfairness towards you." The Italian premier concluded by wishing Israel a "prosperous future". Netanyahu, taking an historical angle, thanked Berlusconi for his visit and wishes: "Rome and Jerusalem are the two great civilizations on which the West as we know it was founded. "It's not every day that we are privileged to host one of Israel's greatest friends. The Italian prime minister is one of peace and freedom's greatest champions...