Emotional Berlusconi Speaks To Israeli Knessset

Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (3rd R) walks past an honour guard as he is escorted by Israel's Speaker of the Parliament Reuven Rivlin (R) during a welcoming ceremony at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, in Jerusalem February 3, 2010. Berlusconi was visibly moved in Israel's parliament on Wednesday when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recalled how the Italian leader's mother helped a Jewish girl during World War Two. (Daylife-Reuters)
Pictures courtesy of Daylife

Ansa:

Jerusalem, February 3 - Israeli's right to exist and the threat posed to the Jewish state by Iran's nuclear ambitions were among the key points of an address Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi made to the Israeli parliament on Wednesday.

He also spoke on the need to combat both anti-Semitism and racism, recalled the horror of the Holocaust and reiterated Italy's position in favor of a Palestinian state existing in peace alongside Israel Berlusconi was the first Italian premier to address the Knesset, although the leader of the centrist UDC party, Pier Ferdinando Casini, spoke to the assembly in 2008 on Holocaust Remembrance Day in his role of chairman of the Interparliamentary Union.

Speaking to the assembly, Berlusconi said "you represent ideals which are universal, you are the greatest example of democracy and freedom in the Middle East if not the only one. An example which has deep roots in the Bible and the Zionist ideal".

"Israel, your state is truly the symbol of this possibility of being free and living in a democracy outside the borders of the West and for this reason you are seen as an intolerable presence by fanatics all over the world," he added.

"Israel's security within its borders and its right to exist as a Jewish state are for us an ethical choice and a moral imperative against all forms of anti-Semitism and negation and against losing the memory of the Holocaust," Berlusconi.

In regard to Iran, Berlusconi said it was "unacceptable that atomic weapons be in possession of a state whose leader openly expresses his desire to destroy Israel and denies not only the Holocaust but also the legitimacy of the Jewish state".

In his address, which was interrupted 12 times by standing ovations, the premier reiterated his 'dream' of seeing Israel join the European Union, even though it is not part of Europe.

"Israel's place must be among the nations of Europe, as a full member of the European Union. This is my dream, this is my hope," he said, Israel qualified to be part of the EU, the premier explained, because "your nation is a true democracy, an open society which is proud of its liberty, a free and democratic state in every way and in every way equal to the democracies in Europe".

Turning his attention to the Holocaust, Berlusconi told the MPs "I truly feel that I am one of you. I knew I was one of you the day I visited Auschwitz, a day which changed my life".

Looking back to anti-Semitic 'racial laws' adopted under Fascism, Berlusconi said that thanks to the Liberation Italy "found the strength to repudiate the infamous racial laws which had shamed our country since 1938 and contradicted centuries of respect for all human being an their dignity".

The premier then looked at today and recalled that after 9/11 "we Italians knew right away that the challenge posed by terrorism was not just against the United States and Israel but against all democratic nations in the West and against moderate Arab countries".

"And since then we have done our part, from Iraq to Afghanistan, Bosnia to Lebanon, to combat terrorism and foster peace," he added.

"We are united in defending democracy and keeping it free from fanaticism, prejudice, superstition and those who exploit the name of God to justify violence," the premier said.

On the prospects for peace in the Middle East, Berlusconi recalled how Rome "has always been in favor of a solution which foresees two states, a Jewish one and a Palestinian one, which exist side by side in peace and security".

"Today, this solution of two states for two peoples appears to be acceptable not only to you and the Palestinian leadership, but also the European Union, the United States and the most important countries in the Arab world," he added.

"And I have to praise Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu for the courage he has shown to follow, explaining to me the interests of his people, this path," the premier said.

Berlusconi also said that Israel was justified in launching its three-week offensive in Gaza, between the end of 2008 and start of 2009, in retaliation to missile launchings by the Hamas militant group.

Italy, he told the Knesset, opposed the UN's Golstone Report, which accused both Israel and Hamas of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, because Israel's response was "justified".

In his introduction to Berlusconi's address, Netanyahu recalled how the premier's recently deceased mother, Rosa, had during the war saved a Jewish girl from a German policeman.

A visibly moved Berlusconi thanked the Israel prime minister for remembering his mother.

Speaking to the assembly after the premier's address, Netanyahu said "here in Israel you have won our hearts and in the name of everyone I wish to tell you how you have our esteem, we embrace and love you".

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack said Berlusconi's address was "stupendous, moving and real, while opposition leader Tzipi Livni said she was moved by the premier's words.

"While other leaders hold back, Berlusconi always has the courage to say what he thinks. For him it's not a question of politics but values. He knows what is right and what is wrong, whether it's anti-Semitism, the Iranian threat or combating terrorism, she added.

Others leaders who have addressed the Knesset include ex-US president George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

As can be expected the Iranian regime responded by stating that the Italian leader had engaged in "blatant interference in the internal affairs of an independent country."

See Berlusconi's remarks with President Abbas today here.

B16 Challenges Iranian Authorities-Respect Freedom of Religion

"The Stoning of Soraya M." Trailer

Official website can be found here.

Facebook page here.

H/T: American Papist

'We Are All Neda', UPDATED with Videos

“Every country has the government it deserves.” Joseph Marie de Maistre

Via Flopping Aces:

Click here for a remembrance website and sign the condolences page.

The Tehran Beshesht Zahra cemetery tomb picture on top is via Twitpic, though the LA Times asserts it has not been able to confirm the veracity of whether she is buried there.

Update 1:

Read full ABC story here.

Neda Agha-Soltan, Revisited

Los Angeles Times reports:

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, 'was a beam of light' and not an activist, friends say. The video footage of her bleeding to death on the street has turned her into an international symbol of the protest movement.

Reporting from Tehran -- The first word came from abroad. An aunt in the United States called her Saturday in a panic. "Don't go out into the streets, Golshad," she told her. "They're killing people."

The relative proceeded to describe a video, airing on exile television channels that are jammed in Iran, in which a young woman is shown bleeding to death as her companion calls out, "Neda! Neda!"

A dark premonition swept over Golshad, who asked that her real name not be published. She began calling the cellphone and home number of her friend Neda Agha-Soltan who had gone to the chaotic demonstration with a group of friends, but Neda didn't answer.

At midnight, as the city continued to smolder, Golshad drove to the Agha-Soltan residence in the eastern Tehran Pars section of the capital.

As she heard the cries and wails and praising of God reverberating from the house, she crumpled, knowing that her worst fears were true.

"Neda! Neda!" the 25-year-old cried out. "What will I do?"

Neda Agha-Soltan, 26, was shot dead Saturday evening near the scene of clashes between pro-government militias and demonstrators who allege rampant vote-count fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The jittery cellphone video footage of her bleeding on the street has turned "Neda" into an international symbol of the protest movement that ignited in the aftermath of the June 12 voting.

To those who knew and loved Neda, she was far more than an icon. She was a daughter, sister and friend, a music and travel lover, a beautiful young woman in the prime of her life.

"She was a person full of joy," said her music teacher and close friend Hamid Panahi, who was among the mourners at her family home on Sunday, awaiting word of her burial. "She was a beam of light. I'm so sorry. I was so hopeful for this woman."

Security forces urged Neda's friends and family not to hold memorial services for her at a mosque and asked them not to speak publicly about her, associates of the family said. Authorities even asked the family to take down the black mourning banners in front of their house, aware of the potent symbol she has become.

But some insisted on speaking out anyway, hoping to make sure the world would not forget her.Neda Agha-Soltan was born in Tehran, they said, to a father who worked for the government and a mother who was a housewife. They were a family of modest means, part of the country's emerging middle class who built their lives in rapidly developing neighborhoods on the eastern and western outskirts of the city.

Like many in her neighborhood, Neda was loyal to the country's Islamic roots and traditional values, friends say, but also curious about the outside world, which is easily accessed through satellite television, the Internet and occasional trips abroad.

The second of three children, she studied Islamic philosophy at a branch of Tehran's Azad University, until deciding to pursue a career in the tourism industry. She took private classes to become a tour guide, including Turkish language courses, friends said, hoping to some day lead groups of Iranians on trips abroad.

Travel was her passion, and with her friends she saved up enough money for package tours to Dubai, Turkey and Thailand. Two months ago, on a trip to Turkey, she relaxed along the beaches of Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast.

She loved music, especially Persian pop, and was taking piano classes, according to Panahi, who is in his 50s, and other friends. She was also an accomplished singer, they said.

But she was never an activist, they added, and she began attending the mass protests only because of a personal sense of outrage over the election results. (Read entire article)

Pictures courtesy of LA Times

Video H/T: Hyscience

Video H/T: C4P

Neda Soltani, R.I.P.

Via Atlas Shrugs:

“A young woman who was standing aside with her father watching the protests was shot by a basij member hiding on the rooftop of a civilian house. He had clear shot at the girl and could not miss her. However, he aimed straight her heart. I am a doctor, so I rushed to try to save her. But the impact of the gunshot was so fierce that the bullet had blasted inside the victim’s chest, and she died in less than 2 minutes.”

Martyrdom is ubiqutous to the Iranian Revolution and Shiite Islam:

Iran's revolution has now run through a full cycle. A gruesomely captivating video of a young woman — laid out on a Tehran street after apparently being shot, blood pouring from her mouth and then across her face — swept Twitter, Facebook and other websites this weekend. The woman rapidly became a symbol of Iran's escalating crisis, from a political confrontation to far more ominous physical clashes. Some sites refer to her as "Neda," Farsi for the voice or the call. Tributes that incorporate startlingly upclose footage of her dying have started to spring up on YouTube.

"Neda" is already being hailed as a martyr, a second important concept in Shiism. With the reported deaths of 19 people Saturday, martyrdom also provides a potent force that could further deepen public anger at Iran's regime. (See the Top Ten Players in Iran's Power Struggle.)

The belief in martyrdom is central to modern politics as well as Shiite tradition dating back centuries in Iran. It too helped propel the 1979 revolution. It sustained Iran during the eight-year war with Iraq, when over 120,000 Iranians died in the bloodiest modern Middle East conflict. Most major Iranian cities have a Martyrs' Museum or a Martyrs' cemetery.

The first Shiite martyr was Hussein, the prophet Mohammed's grandson. He believed it was better to die fighting injustice than to live with injustice under what he believed was illegitimate rule.

In the seventh century, Hussein and a band of fewer than 100 people, including women and children, took on the mighty Umayyad dynasty in Karbala, an ancient city in Mesopotamia now in modern-day Iraq. They knew they would be massacred.

Fourteen centuries later, Hussein's tomb in Karbala is one of the two holiest Shiite shrines — and millions of Iranians still make pilgrimages there every year. Just as Christians reenact Jesus' procession bearing the cross past the fourteen stops to Calvary before his crucifixion, so too do Shiites every year reenact Hussein's martyrdom in an Islamic passion play during the holy period of Ashura. (Read entire article)

Related analysis and commentary regarding Neda:

Infidel Bloggers Alliance

Gates of Vienna

Right Wing News

Sky News

*Memorial Site

Update 1:

HotAir's AllahPundit has new and developing information regarding Neda

Roxana Saberi Freed!

Read the Fox News report here.

See the Sky News Gallery of photos here.

Photo courtesy of AP.

Mullahs Murder Innocent Girl, Again

Hat Tip: Vlad Tepes

How many times do we have to go down this road with the insidious adherents of the Cult of Muhammad which represents death, destruction and utter barbarism...