"Middle East, the EU is immobile": for D'Alema the US is an accomplice of Israel

President D'Alema, the latest issue of the magazine Italianieuropei is titled «Europe-United States, the West at the crossroads», themes that overlap with those of yesterday's Salento event with Raffaele Fitto and Antonio Decaro. The role of the EU remains at times indecipherable. What is the reason for this indeterminacy?

"Europe is facing a difficult scenario after Trump's victory. More and more differences in fundamental interests are emerging compared to the US. The EU has no interest in the slowdown of world trade or in tariff policy. We need a horizon of cooperation."

Yet Europe seems immobile.

"It struggles because it is politically divided. Populism and sovereignism weaken it: being ideologically similar to Trump, they have less strength in defending European values."

The hottest quadrants at the moment are two: Eastern Europe and the Middle East and South Pacific. What role could the EU play?

“The situation in the Middle East is dramatic, tragic for the Palestinians, and fraught with enormous risks for us, for our security, and our economic future.”

Should we fear other Bataclans?

"This tragedy could fuel waves of terrorism, for which we will pay the price."

What do the reports from Gaza describe?

"The US is complicit with Israel, and Europe in essence, because it does not take any initiative to stop the war. There was only the exception of Spain's firmness. The Union maintains a relationship with Tel Aviv that is no longer sustainable. We have an association treaty with Israel, which provides in Article 2 for respect for human rights. It takes imagination to argue that Bibi Netanyahu's government respects them."

Now the conflict from the Strip and Lebanon is spreading.

"We are witnessing the military aggression against Iran in these hours. We cannot forget that the nuclear agreement with Iran was sabotaged by the Americans, not by the ayatollahs. The Trump administration left it to the disappointment of the EU. What happened next is the result of a renunciation of an agreement."

It was the vicious attack by Hamas in 2023 that changed everything.

"No one is questioning the legitimate reaction to October 7, but now we are faced with a declared will on the part of Israel to erase any possibility of a Palestinian state, despite UN resolutions."

In the Middle East, as Foreign Minister, he contributed to peacemaking in 2006 by going to Beirut, where he was immortalized with Hezbollah MP Hussein Haji Hassan.

"An Israeli military action had just begun in Lebanon. We launched a complex diplomatic initiative: we called a peace conference in Rome. Israel pulled out, but there was the UN and a broad international participation. And the US with Condoleezza Rice. With Rice we shuttled between Beirut and Jerusalem, exerting pressure on the parties: we even reached a resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council that imposed a ceasefire and the deployment of UNIFIL, with Italy in command of the mission. Then there was a diplomatic action. Now nothing."

Minister Antonio Tajani took a stand yesterday.

"These are just words. There has been no political action by the EU on Israel. It is Tel Aviv that must stop. It kills 20,000 children and someone says: "We must not exaggerate"? We cannot repeat that Israel has the right to defend itself: it razed Gaza, the area most densely populated by children in the world."

She in Beirut…

«I went to visit the southern area that had been bombed until half an hour before. I walked through the rubble of a working-class neighborhood while people were digging to find their loved ones. I wrote from there to David Grossman the same day, when he lost his son. I told him: “I’m sorry we were late.” I have a book with a dedication from him: he thanked me for my commitment to peace in MO».

There is the Mattei Plan. At what point is this project?

«Italy is taking some initiatives, but there is a weakness of Rome and the EU towards the other side of the Mediterranean».

What does it refer to?

"Let's forget about Chinese activism in Africa, the Sino-African summit ended yesterday, giving rise to a massive economic cooperation (duty-free imports of African products to Beijing). To understand what is happening in the world, the BRICS have also launched a development bank that will give interest-free loans to African countries. The South of the world is growing prodigiously and no longer needs us."

In Europe there is discussion about rearmament. Will we end up, as the pacifists say, investing more in defense than in welfare or health?

"The US is abdicating the global role it played in the post-war period. Just remember the recent withdrawal from Kabul. We need a European defense, not to give the green light to the national rearmament race, which would be an enormous waste. We need a European integration of defense systems, it would make us use resources rationally, developing specializations".

Stopping in Puglia, Raffaele Fitto is the executive vice-president of the EU Commission.

"I have known him since I was a boy. I would not want his relationship with his father Totò to be a blind eye to me, I saw his first steps. I consider him a serious politician. I was sorry when, in the crisis of the EPP, he chose to go to the right, not without some suffering. In Brussels he will represent not only the government but the interests of Italy. In political diversity, we fought, but maintaining great mutual respect".

Antonio Decaro is the rising star of the left: do you see him better in Rome, Bari or Brussels?

"He is a person of value, he is not an improvised politician. He was an excellent mayor and gave national prominence to his role in Bari. He is an important resource for the region. His future will be decided by the centre-left and the citizens of Puglia. He had a deserved popular consensus: 500 thousand votes are not easy to get. I say this as a specialist ( smiles , ed.): I collected 838 thousand in the European elections in 2004...".