14 December 2006
On a visit to Rome, Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert has won support from his Italian counterpart Romano Prodi on Israel's future as a Jewish state, peacemaking and Iran, despite conflicts with some members of Italy's center-left government. Olmert, in Rome on the second leg of a European trip, stood by Prodi's side at a news conference where the Italian leader declared himself committed to Israel's continuation as a predominantly Jewish state. Olmert later said that could only imply Italian rejection of the Palestinians' demand to allow millions of refugees and their descendants to live in Israel as part of a final peace deal. Israel fears such a mass repatriation would render Jews a minority in the Jewish state.
Prodi also gave public support to imposing sanctions on Iran to force it to abandon a nuclear program that Israel, the US and other countries think is designed to develop weapons, despite Tehran's insistence to the contrary. The Italian leader urged a swift resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and said that peace moves must be based on the internationally backed "road map", and not, by implication, on any other initiative that might come out of Europe or elsewhere. The Italian prime minister reaffirmed support for international demands that the Palestinian government, led by Hamas militants, recognize the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. "Every peace process must go through a renouncing of violence, recognition of the state of Israel, recognition of past agreements and, I must add, also the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state," Prodi said.
Meanwhile, at an encounter with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, Olmert invited the pontiff to visit Israel. He also asked Benedict to publicly speak out against Holocaust denial. The Vatican's secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who met separately with Olmert, told journalists afterwards that such a visit, while much desired, would require precise conditions. "The visit in Israel and in the Holy Land is in the Pope's heart, but it can only be made possible in conditions of peace or at least of a stable and secure truce," Italian news agencies quoted the cardinal as saying.
