Fiamma Nirenstein "...at the service of the country that I love."

Bruce Bawer..
frontpagemag.com..
13 February '13..

When she walks down the streets in Italy, passersby shout greetings to her, addressing her as onorevole. “In a few days,” Italian Parliamentarian Fiamma Nirenstein said to me the other day in a long, energetic, and remarkably openhearted phone call from Rome, “I will not be onorevole anymore.”

Nirenstein, one of the most prominent members of the Italian Parliament, has chosen not to run for office again. More than that, she has chosen to leave Italy for Israel. She is Jewish. She is making aliyah. And she is leaving politics to return to journalism.

She has mixed feelings about the change. “As a journalist, you’re read. By some. But when you’re an onorevole, all you have to say is that you’re angry about something and a whole lot of people in the press will write about it. And you can write a law, and spread the word, and win support, and get it passed.” In many regards, Fiamma is like former Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan Hirsi Ali, not only because both women have made use of their political positions to vigorously challenge Islam and defend its victims, but because both ended up having to be accompanied everywhere by armed guards – and also because Fiamma, like Ayaan before her, is a top-rank European hero of our time who has decided that she has no alternative other than to leave Europe.

Fiamma has stood up for Jews in Italy, for gays and Christians in the Middle East, for the anathematization of Hezbollah. That’s different from just being a journalist. Still, journalism is calling. “A journalist is a journalist, and you have to go back to it.”

There were, to be sure, doubts. “I had to decide. Do I stay or go? If I could have stayed a little more I would have stayed.” But at some point, she wanted to make aliyah. Which is another issue: “When you’re in Parliament, you don’t want to be accused of double loyalties” – of caring more about Israel than about Italy. For her, there’s no conflict. She remains devoted to Italy – its culture, its roots. But she sees, as some Italians don’t, that if they fail to stand up for Israel, Italy is over. “They’re dead. They’re done. They’re destroyed. This is how I feel about Europe.”

Eydar - The flame of Fiamma

Fiamma Nirenstein

Dror Eydar
Israel Hayom
07 November '11

http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=1732

Before she undertook the role of Israel's defender in Italy, Fiamma Nirenstein was raised as a leftist in a Jewish family • Today, as vice president of the Italian Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, she is convinced: "The Palestinians want their own state in order to destroy the Jewish state" • An interview brimming with ideology and vision.

On my way to the residence of Fiamma Nirenstein in Rome, I passed protest signs linking the mayor of Rome to Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Nirenstein, a Jewish intellectual and media personality, was elected three years ago to the Italian parliament as a member of the "People of Freedom" party headed by Berlusconi. She serves as vice president of the Italian parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee and heads several other parliamentary committees, such as the Committee for the Inquiry into Anti-Semitism. Fiamma means "flame" in Italian – an apt description of this energetic women, who, during our talk, which extended in all directions, managed to hold two conversations with the speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, the foreign minister, and her two bodyguards, allocated to her ever since entering political activity and consequently receiving threats on her life, from various quarters.

On the table lay the Il Giornale newspaper, in which she publishes a pro-Israel column titled "Fuoco e Fiamma," which means "fire and flame." Her walls are lined with numerous books, among them her publications on Israel, the Jewish people, anti-Semitism, the Middle East and terror. Her latest book is titled "Israel Is Us." Prior to this, she gathered about 3,000 Italians, including senior intellectuals and politicians, to a pro-Israel rally, and its dozens of speeches were compiled in a book titled "For the Truth, For Israel." On the table also lay a draft of her new book.

She recounts how her father arrived in Italy with the Jewish Brigade, and met her mother in Florence, where he decided to remain. For years he served as the reporter for "Al Hamishmar" in Italy. "We were an extremely leftist family," she laughs.

So, you went astray?

I, too, was a communist – the same as the rest of my generation. However, I sobered up by the end of the 1970s. In 1967, a few months before the outbreak of the Six Day War, my parents sent me to Kibbutz Neot Mordechai. When war broke out I got to see it through Israeli eyes. As a journalist, I spent all the following wars in Israel, too. I saw with my own eyes how essential it was to be together when facing danger. This is the reason why I hope the Jews in Israel can unite, despite their differences. Because my main concern is for the Jews.

With all my struggles for Israel, with the Palestinian issue and the unilateral declaration at the U.N., the real story is Iran. It is very hard to convince the Jews of their present danger. It was different during the Six Day War; the sense of togetherness was much stronger.

Naivete Can Be Deadly: J Street in Europe and the Two State Solution

Phyllis Chesler
Chesler Chronicles
04 May '10

Fiamma Nirenstein is a member of the Italian Parliament and a journalist. She is a tireless champion of democracy and freedom and therefore of Israel. Some French intellectuals, including Bernard-Henri Levy (of the famously bared chest, tousled mane, and starlet wives), and Alain Finkelkraut (who should know better), have launched a petition which they plan to present to the European Parliament. The petition, (which, so far, has 5000 signatures), is more naive than pernicious but may still lead to an unfortunate outcome; further confirmation of the view that both Israel and the Palestinians are to blame for the stalemate and that both must be forced to come to the table. It is, as Nirenstein says, a very “Obama-like” kind of document. The desire for a two state solution has, historically, been an Israel-only desire; the Palestinians have rejected every single opportunity for statehood and have consistently rejected a Jewish state.

If you don’t believe me, please read Daniel Pipes’ review of Ephraim Karsh’s excellent new book Palestine Betrayed. Karsh definitively and brilliantly lays out the case for the historical Palestinian rejection of both a state and of a second, separate Jewish sovereign state. Pipes writes: “Palestine Betrayed reframes today’s Arab–Israeli debate by putting it into its proper historical context. Proving that for 90 years the Palestinian political elite has opted to reject ‘the Jewish national revival and [insisted on] the need for its violent destruction,’ Karsh correctly concludes that the conflict will end only when the Palestinians give up on their ‘genocidal hopes.’”

(Read full article)

If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.
.

European Politicians Are Living a Lie about Israel: An Interview with Fiamma Nirenstein

The Italian politician and author talks about the East Jerusalem flap and makes some startling statements about the similarity of views between the European left and jihadists.


Stefan Frank
Pajamasmedia.com
26 March '10
Posted before Shabbat

The Italian journalist Fiamma Nirenstein is the author of numerous books on anti-Semitism, Israel, and the Middle East conflict, including (in English) Israel is Us and Terror: the New Anti-Semitism and the War against the West.

In April 2008, she was elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies as a member of Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom (PDL) party. She is presently the vice-president of the chamber’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. In February, she accompanied Prime Minister Berlusconi on a three-day visit to Israel.

Stefan Frank spoke with Fiamma Nirenstein about Israeli construction in East Jerusalem, anti-Semitism on the left, European criticism of Israel, and the significance of Berlusconi’s recent visit.

********

Q: Jerusalem is presently the focus of a great deal of media attention. Some people say that by announcing the construction of new residential units in East Jerusalem, Israel has clouded the prospects for peace in the Middle East and angered the USA. Relations between the two countries are said to be in a deep crisis.

Fiamma Nirenstein: The 10-month freeze granted unilaterally by Netanyahu in December — which Obama welcomed enthusiastically — referred to West Bank settlements. East Jerusalem was never included. Jerusalem is an issue with which Israel and the Palestinians will deal only at the negotiating table. Most people are ignorant of the fact that what is commonly known as East Jerusalem was ruled by Jordan from 1948 to 1967. Before then, the town had a Jewish majority for centuries.

In previous negotiations, like those between Arafat and Barak in 2000 or between Olmert and Abu Mazen in 2007, even the Palestinian side considered that many of the neighborhoods being called “settlements” by the newspapers, like Ramat Shlomo, could possibly be annexed to the Jewish part of the town in a final agreement. This is because most of these neighborhoods have been built either in deserted areas or in areas that had already been inhabited by Jews, who could not, however, live there under Jordanian rule because of the threat to their lives.

In short, the decision to build 1600 units was taken a long time ago. The Americans have seized on the bad timing of the announcement during Biden’s visit in order to push the peace process in the way Obama wants.

Q: You write a lot about leftist anti-Semitism. When and how did you discover its existence?

Fiamma Nirenstein: I made this discovery in theory and in practice. In 1967, as a young girl, I was a communist like all the other people of my age. My parents sent me to a kibbutz in northern Israel called Neot Mordechai. It was a leftist kibbutz, every week it dedicated one working day to the Vietcong. During the Six-Day-War, which broke out during my stay, I took care of the kids and brought them to the shelter.

(Read full interview)
.