Ha’aretz reports:
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema termed the assassination of Imad Mughniyah “terror” in an interview to be published Friday in the popular Italian weekly L’espresso. He also said that Israeli assassinations of Hamas officials “serve as an alibi for terror.”
Concerning Mughniyah’s killing, “by my definition, the car bomb in the middle of Damascus was terror,” he said.
A definition that apparently has great nuance.
Following Hamas’ January 2006 victory in the Palestinian elections, d’Alema said that ‘while the organization is in fact extremist, the terror attacks it wages on Israel are part of the Palestinian resistance to the Israeli occupation.’
Meanwhile, if you read the whole Ynet article linked above, you will come across this anecdote that sums up D’Alema’s views:
A woman who accompanied the new Italian foreign minister during his visit to Jerusalem in 1999 said that upon his arrival she greeted him by saying “welcome to Israel,” to which he responded, “welcome to Palestine.”
Welcome to the reality of the new Italy-Israel relations.
