Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz......
The coldness of the answer of the German authorities to the request
of the Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Germany is typical of
the relations between the high-ranking representatives of the Third
Reich and anything Jewish, whether anti-Zionist or Zionist. Now, when
it comes to the relations between Mussolini's Italy and Zionism, the
matter is less simple, especially since Mussolini meant to
establish "great and cordial relations" with the Arab world.
Jabotinsky's flirt with Fascism is well-known. But who didn't flirt
with Fascism or even with National Socialism in the late 1920's? Both
Hitler and Mussolini were praised openly and publicly by most of the
main Western political schemers at that time, to start - until
the 'accident' he had during a private visit in the United States -
with Churchill. Basically, what does this flirt show? Not the
rapprochement of Fascist Italy towards the Betar, but, on the
contrary, the attempt of the Betar to come together with Fascism,
according to the chameleon character of the Jewish people. Beyond
this, it would be almost as easy to show that Mussolini was anti-
Zionist as to show that he had Zionist sympathies. Until 1919, in 'Il
Popolo d'Italia', his newspaper, he combined anti-Semitism with pro-
Zionist attitudes in his articles, only to conclude that Zionism was
merely a cat's paw for the British, and he began to refer to Italian
Jewish Zionists as "so-called Italians". In December 1922, Zionists
obtained an audience with Mussolini, where they assured Mussolini of
their loyalty, but Mussolini told them that he saw Zionism as a mere
tool of the British.
To work out the complex and often disconcerting relations between
Mussolini, who often gave us the impression of being perfectly aware
of the situation while doing the contrary of what he should have
done, and Zionism, it is necessary to study them on the long-run ;
the following article offers us a few clues in this respect, but ONLY
in this respect :
"Until the Unification, the Vatican was a major force in Italy. At
the end of the 19th century the Catholic church started a struggle
against the Jews. This was probably due to two factors: first of all,
this was a way for the church to try and break its isolation; and,
secondly, the Austrian Christian-Socialist movement was very
influential in the Vatican. The Fascist movement found it easy to
side with the Vatican; leftists were enemies of both Mussolini and
the Vatican. In the 20s, however, Mussolini showed a certain
favoritism towards the Zionist movement. However, this was probably
more of a warning to the Vatican than a meaningful undertaking with
regard the Zionists. At the time Italian Jewry did not know how
unreliable Mussolini could be, and how eager he was to advance his
ambitions through any possible alliance.
In Italy, contrary to other European countries, anti-Semitism was not
a strong political force. For instance, Mussolini declared to the
Chief Rabbi of Rome, Angelo Sacerdoti, that Fascism was neither anti-
Semitism nor anti-Semitic. "The Jewish Problem does not exist in
Italy," he said. Angelo Sacerdoti subsequently gave an interview to
the L'Echo de Paris stating his sympathy with Fascism. Despite some
violent incidents at the beginning of the Fascist era in 1926-27,
Mussolini managed to normalize the situation to the extent that
relations between Jews and Fascists were mutually cordial. Bearing in
mind his complex personality, Mussolini's attitude towards Jews was
at best ambiguous. When he believed that he could benefit from the
world of international finance, he expressed sympathy towards Zionist
aspirations. For example, when Mussolini wanted to expand Italian
economic influence in the Mediterranean (Saloneki, Rhodes), he used
the local Jewish communities as much as possible.
At the end of 1935, however, Mussolini overestimated the extent of
the mythical "Jewish World Power". After the Ethiopian War, Great
Britain was proposing sanctions against Italy. With Mussolini's
consent, the Federation of Italian Jewish Communities sent a mission
to London. Professor Dante Lattes and poet Angelo Orvieto –
representatives of Jewish communities – accompanied the mission,
whose aim was to persuade the British not to impose sanctions. Why
did the Jewish communities agree to go to London? In 1935 they must
have understood that sanctions might drive Mussolini (and Italy) to
an alliance with Hitler's Germany…
The mission failed, and sanctions were imposed. Mussolini had already
spoken about Zionism being a product of British Imperialism, and the
campaign against Zionism got fully underway. The nationalist camp
insisted that by being Zionist, the Jews put their own group's
interests before those of the nation. In his usual illogical manner,
Mussolini sometimes attacked and sometimes praised Zionist
aspirations. The number of Jewish generals and admirals in the
Italian army remained extremely high. Mussolini saw the Zionist
Federation as a separatist movement, but at times he did not really
care about its activities. Until the summer of 1937 he simply
referred to Italian Jewry as Jewish Italians (Fascists) and Italian
Jews (anti- or non-Fascists).
When an alliance with Germany became a strong possibility, the
situation in Italy changed. Mussolini seemed to need to get rid of
leading Jewish personalities in the army and in the party, and racial
ideology was just what he could use to reach this goal, even though
Mussolini himself never believed in any racial theories. However,
when siding with Hitler's Germany, Mussolini could not have had
a "Jewish army" – Hitler would not have accepted that. On the other
hand, Hitler's Germany was flexible with Mussolini's Italy, and
Mussolini was not forced to adopt racial policies. I think it is
important to realize that German pressure with regard racial policy
cannot be supported by any relevant source material.
Italian Jewry reacted to Mussolini's changing policies. In April
1935, Carlo Ovazza, a Jew from Turin, founded "La Nostra Bandiera", a
Jewish Fascist group. Apparently the group wanted to clearly
distinguish themselves from Zionist Jews. The presence of Italian
Jews in the fascist movement was formidable from the very beginning,
and the Jews were very active in the movement. On the other hand, as
Formiggini points out, Italian Jews were divided in their attitudes
towards fascism in the same way that the Gentiles were. Fascist
propaganda tended to argue that having a Jewish identity was an
explanation for non-Fascist leanings. Even though there was no
official stand against the Jews at the beginning of the Fascist era,
one-off incidents occurred and the Jewish identity of anti-Fascists
was always accentuated by the press.
To summarize, fascism was not anti-Semitic and, therefore, many Jews
joined the fascist movement. Mussolini, who to a large extent
controlled the movement, had ambiguous feelings about Italian Jewry.
He wanted to use the Jewish communities but, on the other hand, did
not hesitate to join Germany at the expense of Italian Jews.
Italian Zionism
Italy was a hard country for Zionism to conquer. It is possible that
Italian Jewry had a certain curiosity towards Zionism as towards
their history and customs, but in Italy there was certainly no
hierarchy of the free and the oppressed. The Jewish population
occupied positions in all levels of society and in every political
party. In addition, there was hardly any anti-Semitism. It is, of
course, arguable whether anti-Semitism is necessary for Zionism to
succeed. A famous Italian Jew and Zionist, Dante Lattes (born 1876),
believed in the connection between the two phenomena. In Russia, the
anti-Semitic pogroms produced Zionists who came to totally reject
their old countries. According to Lattes, Italy's assimilated Jews
could not do the same: even if an Italian Jew became a Zionist, he
would never cease to be an Italian. In fact, Lattes believed that an
Italian Jew was primarily an Italian and only then a Jew. Lattes
attributed this to the fact that even though assimilation was a
danger to Italian Jewry, the lack of anti-Semitism made Italy an
ideal country for the Jews. Italian Jews were merely Italians of
Jewish faith.
Because of the fast-developing relationship between the Jewish
communities and the Fascist regime, the Unione delle Comunita
Israelitiche Italiane was established in 1930. One of the most
important messages of the Union was the "fact" that Judaism and
Italian Jewry in general had nothing to do with Zionism. The leaders
accentuated individual Jew's responsibilities as opposed to those of
the Union, which was not a Zionist movement. For their part the
Zionists tried to educate the Fascist party about Zionism. They
maintained that Zionism could be useful to Italy's political
interests, and they also tried to make the rest of the Jewish
community more aware of Zionism.
The first phase of Italian Zionism – from roughly 1900 to the First
World War – was devoted to organizing humanitarian help for Eastern
European Jewry. The inter-war period was formative in terms of
ideology and theory, while only after 1935 did the Zionist movement
realize that the tide had turned, and that it would pay the price for
Fascism. Racism and anti-Semitism did not really gain momentum in the
Italian political climate. Much could be said about the reasons for
this, including the Italians themselves, their character, and the old
civilization. But the fact remains that anti-Zionism did resonate in
Italy, and Mussolini learnt to exploit this to the full. In the
previous section we saw that Mussolini thought that Zionism was
linked to British aspirations in the Middle East: it was easy to
start a campaign of propaganda and intimidation in the Fascist press
in a totalitarian state.
As usual Mussolini acted illogically. In 1923 he met with Chaim
Weizmann. In Weizmann's memoirs, which were later criticized by Dante
Lattes, he only wrote about his uneasiness after the Second World
War. Lattes felt that Weizmann did not understand the relationship
between Fascism and Zionism in Italy, and that he did not comprehend
the unique relationship between Jews and Fascists either. Mussolini
also received Doctor Jacobson, a member of the Zionist Executive. A
committee for Italy-Palestine was founded as a result, and afterwards
Mussolini met with Nahum Sokolov. I would like to speculate on the
empty promises that Mussolini would have made at the time. He did not
yet know whose side he would join and he believed in "Jewish Finance"
and "World Power". In fact, Mussolini thought Hitler was making a big
mistake by deploying anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Regardless of Mussolini's maneuvers there was fear among the Italian
Jewish communities, and the Zionists became increasingly isolated
from the larger community. The Revisionist movement under Leone
Carpi's leadership sought to combine Zionism with "Italianesimo",
Italianism, and the movement's paper was called "L'Idea Sionistica",
the Zionist Idea. In Rome, Dante Lattes was the editor-in-chief of
the Zionist paper, "Israel", which Mussolini had delivered to his
home. More often than not Lattes filled the pages with direct
messages to Mussolini. What kind of messages? Obviously, messages
that would convince il Duce that Italian Jews could be Zionists and
still remain loyal Italian citizens.
In a way, Zionism in Italy was sleeping until Fascism aroused it from
its slumber. Zionism only became politicized when forced to face the
threat from Fascism. Italy was a very difficult country for the
Zionist movement, and Italian Jewry in general wanted to disassociate
itself from the Zionist movement. Does this mean that the Zionists
were better equipped to face what was coming? Finally, Lattes argued
that it was not Fascism itself that broke off relations with Jewry –
the decisive factor was the alliance with Germany. According to
Lattes, earlier anti-Fascism amongst Jews was not a result of Judaism
but rather a result of being Italian. Naturally, there were Italian
anti-Fascists.
(...)"
--- In
evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "Rowan Berkeley"
<rowan_berkeley@y...> wrote:
>
> By 1934, Jabotinsky and his Betar youth movement had made an
alliance with Il Duce, when the Betar established a
> naval training academy at Civitavecchia, Mussolini's naval base
north of Rome. L'Idea Sionistica, Betar's
> Italian-language magazine, described the dedication ceremonies
which launched the academy: "The order -
> 'Attention!' A triple chant ordered by the squad's commanding
officer - 'Viva L'Italia, Viva Il Re! Viva Il
> Duce!' resounded, followed by the benediction which Rabbi Aldo
Lattes invoked in Italian and in Hebrew for God,
> for the King, and for Il Duce ... 'Giovinezza' [the fascist party's
anthem] was sung with much enthusiasm by the
> Betarim."
>
> Mussolini endorsed Jabotinsky in 1935, saying, "For Zionism to
succeed, you need to have a Jewish state with a
> Jewish flag, and Jewish language. The person who really understands
that is your fascist, Jabotinsky."
>
> Il Duce gave his personal endorsement to the project in 1936, when
he visited Civitavecchia and reviewed the
> Betar cadre force. It was not a mere coincidence that the universal
uniform of Betar was the fascist brownshirt.
>
> Although Jabotinsky was careful not to endorse Mussolini directly,
he nonetheless publicly defended him. In 1935
> during a lecture tour of the United States, Jabotinsky wrote
several articles which appeared in the New York
> Jewish Daily Bulletin. "Whatever any few think of Fascism's other
points, there is no doubt that the Italian
> brand of Fascist ideology is at least an ideology of racial
equality. Let us not be so humble as to pretend that
> this does not matter - that racial equality is too insignificant an
idea to outbalance the absence of civic
> freedom. For it is not true.... Equality comes first, always first,
super first; and Jews should remember it,
> and hold that a regime maintaining that principle in a world turned
cannibal does, partly, but considerably,
> atone for its other short-comings."
>
> That same year, Jabotinsky founded the New Zionist Organization and
sought to hold its first convention in the
> Venetian port city of Trieste. According to sources, associates
dissuaded him, arguing that it would be a public
> endorsement of Italian Fascism, which was not politically
appropriate. (The congress was held in Vienna.)
>
>
http://www.cecaust.com.au/main.asp?
sub=culture/jewish&id=p3/article3.htm
>
>
>
>
> ___________________________________________________________
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