Posted by
Cary Wesberry on Saturday, May 10, 2008 2:05:15 AM
(IsraelNN.com) Italian President Giorgio Napolitano opened the prestigious Turin book fair Thursday amid opposition from Muslims and the Italian Left over the choice of Israel as the event's guest of honor.
"No dialogue is possible if there is a refusal to recognize Israel," Napolitano said at Israel's stand at the fair, the European Jewish Press reported. Napolitano added that there can be no "rejection of the reasons for [Israel's] birth or of its right to exist in peace and security."
Like the Paris book fair in March, the Turin fair is honoring the modern state of Israel on the 60th anniversary of its creation. Israel's stand was swamped by hundreds of people, many draped in the Israeli flag, with one group holding a banner that read: "I feel Jewish today."
"A special thank-you, with all my heart, goes to President Napolitano for his strong position this year, after the calls over recent months to boycott the Book Fair because of Israel's presence," Israel’s new ambassador to Italy, Gideon Meir, said at the fair's opening. Meir said the calls for a boycott were “an attempt to undermine the state of Israel.”
"The President's choice of inaugurating the book fair dedicated to Israel represents a very important moral position to left and right wing extremists that come to Turin to boycott the fair and want to de-legitimize Israel," Meir told Italian daily La Repubblica.
He did it anyway! Good job by the Italian President. Islamists in Europe need to understand they are the outsiders in that continent until they decide to be responsible and appropriately assimilate. Italy did the right thing by honoring Israel's birthday.