Italian Prime Minister unwittingly expresses her feelings on the Ukraine
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elephone pranks are usually seen as an entertainment for kids – but international politics has actually discovered that it could also be a very serious issue, moreover if the victim is Italian PM Giorgia Meloni, a front-runner of Ukrainian support. On November 1st, a Russian comic duo, Vovan and Lexus, released online the audio of a prank where Meloni was deceived by one of the two comedians who pretended to be the African Union President. The alleged President soon made Meloni talk about the Ukrainian crisis, after pretending to be focused on migration issues in Northern Africa. Asked about the feeling towards the Ukrainian crisis among international leaders, she said that “I see that there is a lot of fatigue, I have to say the truth, from all the sides, we are near the moment in which everybody understands that we need a way out.” Those statements, even if not public, would have been capable of sparking a serious outrage among the international community, but
by Dario Pio Muccilli, EU correspondent
"There’s no doubt that Tel-Aviv will do whatever it takes to foster the attention on its needs." the latter didn't blame Meloni for her words, as it has happened before that other leaders such as former German Chancellor Angela Merke or former British PM Boris Johnson were caught in the same trap. Moreover, the international community has no interest at all in dividing itself on a supposed joke which is just the product of Russian propaganda attempting to undermine the western public support for Kyiv’s cause. Nevertheless, the “fatigue” expressed by Meloni is somewhat a real danger
HOWARD
Part Two: A Person I Admire With Somewhat Less (continued from page 2) Enthusiasm “C’mon, Miriam, you’ve lived through worse.” “Mr. Graubard, if you think reminding me of the Holocaust is going to cheer me up, you are probably not going to succeed.” Miriam spent four year knitting pussy hats and attending Black Lives Matter demonstrations, speaking at Synagogues and religious schools, when she got the chance, and once playing herself in a production at Yeshiva Flatbush. But mostly she watched CNN. She stopped going to survivor events when she found them too full of Trump followers. “They want to complain about blacks; I told them a black man didn’t kill my mother.” Every morning she called to ask me the same question; “is he gone yet?” We worried that when he was gone, she would have nothing to live for. But now, at 97, she still spends her days worrying that Trump will come back, alternating that with complaints that Bibi is running Israel. The last few weeks have been difficult times for Miriam and her family. To them, the idea of a place which would take in Jews, when no one else would admit them and they had no place else to go, is not merely theoretical, because there is no way they can go back to the place my wife sneeringly refers to as “Sunny Poland.”
Red Hook Star-Revue
At a Democratic Club meeting in the 52nd AD, my soon to be former Councimember, Lincoln Restler, noted that he was losing a large chunk of the area to redistricting. He smiled and joked “I regret that I am losing Howard.” “Not as much as I regret it,” I responded. He may not have meant it; I did. The Anti-Defamation League’s last annual report showed a 52% increase in antisemitic incidents across the city in 2022, with 395 reported incidents of antisemitic vandalism, harassment or assault in New York City, including 66 reports of physical violence, 52 of them in heavily Orthodox-populated Brooklyn neighborhoods. On April 27, 2023, Councilwoman Shahana Hanif voted against a resolution introduced in response to this report, to recognize April 29 annually as “End Jew Hatred Day.” As I noted last month, there was an arguable reason (a line hailing an astroturf group of bad actors) to abstain on such a resolution, if one explained it, but when there is a resolution condemning acts of violence against a religious group, it is probably the better part of valor to raise your quibbles and then say, “but this is too important to do anything but vote Yes.” But the Councilmember didn’t abstain, she voted no. On October 7, 2023, the terrorist organization Hamas, which governs
for Zelensky, who has made countless appeals to his allies in order not to lose their active support. Zelensky feels that an enduring crisis could have the potential to tire the USA and the European Union of Ukraine. That is why he’s also trying to capitalize on the current moment, as he stated that the Ukrainian goal is to obtain a political decision on Ukraine’s EU membership by the end of 2023. If the goal seems unreachable, it’s clear that Ukraine is in a hurry, as the “fatigue” of the international community could be the actual end for Kyiv’s project to win the war without any major concession to Russia. That’s because it is clear that if all the weapons suppliers and political stakeholders supporting Ukraine want it to negotiate, it would be impossible for Zelensky, or whoever would come, not to. The current crisis in the Middle East will also weaken the attention drawn to Ukraine, as Israel is historically a closer ally and more strategic country for US interests. And there’s no doubt that TelAviv will do whatever it takes to foster
the Gaza strip by force, unleashed a violent attack on Israel, targeting civilians, in which 1400 hundred were brutally murdered, tortured and/or raped while over 200 were kidnapped and held as hostages. According tom the Atlantic, one set of terrorists surrounded a Thai man they had shot in the stomach and discussed their next move. One shouted “Give me a knife!,” but sadly the cupboard was bare, so, being resourceful, he instead located a garden hoe, swinging it repeatedly at the man’s throat. Another called his parents, telling them he was calling from a Jewish woman’s phone. He told them he was a “hero” and “I killed 10 Jews with my own hands.” He also told them they should open up WhatsApp, because he had sent them candid photos with the proof. As Charles Sykes noted, the cruelty is not an anomaly; the cruelty is the point. October 13, 2023, Councilwoman Hanif tweeted (https://ShahanaFromBK/ status/1712911136067076510) “The root cause of this war is the illegal, immoral, and unjust occupation of the Palestinian people. The Occupation has brought violence toward Israelis and Palestinians for over 75 years. There will be no peace unless the rights of all people in this region are respected” Translation from Newspeak: Since the occupation actually began 56 years ago, in 1967, this is a clearly a declaration that the occupation is defined by the Councilmember to include the en-
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the attention on its needs, reducing resources available for Kyiv, whose diplomacy is also less experienced than the Jewish state’s. Since the Ukrainian crisis broke out, multiple other heated scenarios appeared or kept burning. Therefore, Meloni’s words don’t help thinking that Kyiv’s issue will still be a top priority in the agenda, as anyone is starting to lose trust. Of course, Italian institutions, and the other countries’ mentioned before as well, did not show their best side. The silence on that call by other leaders is good for unity, but not for reassuring public opinion which shares that “fatigue” in many countries and has the need of new wood to fuel its pro-Ukrainian will. Zelenskiy knows this now more than ever and it’s not hard to think that Meloni’s call, which had a wide international coverage, would eventually play a harmful role on Kyiv’s stance, exactly as planned by the comic duo, probably on behalf of the Russian State and its head in the Kremlin.
tirety of the State of Israel, and to signal to those who know the secret code that the Councilmember questions the legitimacy of the world’s only state which serves as a refuge for the Jewish people and that she wants that state abolished. Her last sentence here is a might ambiguous; she may mean she finds the actions justified, or it may be that she just finds them inevitable (hitting a gravely injured man repeatedly in the throat with a garden hoe is possibly neither, but there I go editorializing again). The truth is. that if the Councilmember wanted to resolve the ambiguity, she would have done so. It is notable that, nowhere in her statement, or in any statement since, has the Councilmember mentioned, let alone condemned Hamas. Instead, she gives us a shrug of her shoulders, and perhaps a sly wink. On October 17, 2023 Councilwoman Hanif retweeted a post (https://twitter.com/nycDSA/status/1714386903791730810), in support of a rally sponsored by the Democratic Socialists of America, which stated “No more helping Israel destroy hospitals.” This is either a blood libel, since many experts believe it to be disproven, or (if one believes the NY Times) a jump to conclusions not yet based in any evidence. At any rate, it wasn’t a hospital, but a hospital parking lot, and many experts believe the responsibility belongs to a terrorist group called Islamic Jihad. It must also be noted that, on the same date, as a result of the circulation of the
(continued on page 15) November 2023, Page 13
