MIDEAST: PRODI, ITALY IS FRIEND OF ISRAEL(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - Premier Romano Prodi said on
Tuesday that peace in the Middle East required sacrifices by
both Israel and Arabs and that a key condition was an
independent Palestinian state.
Prodi, who said Italy was a firm friend of Israel, was
speaking during a reception organised by the Israeli embassy
in Rome to mark the 59th anniversary of the independence of
the Jewish state.
He was also speaking a few hours before a meeting with
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, with whom he was
expected to discuss the apparent end of a five-month truce
between Hamas's armed wing and Israel.
"True security in Israel will come only with the birth
of an independent Palestinian state which lives alongside an
Israel recognised by all its neighbours," Prodi said at the
Israeli anniversary reception.
"To obtain true peace Israel will have to make
sacrifices along with Arab countries and guarantee the
Palestinians an independent state, which has geographic
continuity".
Militants belonging to Hamas, which leads the
Palestinian government, fired rockets into Israel from the
Gaza Strip on Tuesday, effectively ending a ceasefire
declared late last year.
The attack appeared to be retaliation after Israeli
soldiers killed nine Palestinians at the weekend.
Prodi made no mention of the Hamas rocket attacks on
Israel, and instead drew attention to recent diplomatic
contacts between the Palestinian Authority and Israel in
connection with a Saudi peace plan.
Israel's ambassador to Italy, referring to the rocket
attacks, noted that in 2007 "terrorist organisations like
Hamas and Hesbollah" continued to invoke the destruction of
Israel.
"We don't refuse peace. It's others that refuse us and
our very existence. Even though we are under threat, we
continue to desire peace," he said.
Among the Italian dignitaries invited to the anniversary
celebration was former foreign minister Gianfranco Fini, head
of the rightist National Alliance party which has distant
Fascist roots.
A groundbreaking visit by Fini to Israel in 2003 was
seen as the ultimate confirmation that his party had expunged
its tainted past and was now fully accepted. During the trip,
Fini denounced Fascism's role in what he termed the "absolute
evil" of the Holocaust.
"A warm shalom to everyone," Fini said in his speech on
Tuesday, using the traditional Jewish greeting.
He said that the breaking of the ceasefire on such a
symbolic date showed the need for the international community
to demand that Hamas recognise Israel and its right to exist.
