Jerusalem – Berlusconi In Emotional Tour At Yad Vashem Writes in Guest Book ‘This Cannot Be’

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    Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum in Jerusalem, on  February 1, 2010.photo by Abir Sultan /Flash 90Jerusalem – It was like being punched in the stomach,” Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said after visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem Monday evening along with a number of his ministers.

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    Berlusconi’s entourage was accompanied by Education Minister Gideon Saar and Yad Vashem chairman Avner Shalev. At the end of the tour Berlusconi laid a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance and signed the Yad Vashem Guest book. “Our soul screams out – ‘This cannot be’. Then it jolts and bellows – Never again!’,” he wrote.

    Shalev said the Italian premier was clearly moved by the visit. “He faced things that he could not even grasp and said he would remember the experience for a long time to come,” said the museum chairman.

    What particularly caught the Italian leader’s attention was a photo album from Auschwitz and statistics on the number of European Jews killed during the war.

    Earlier Monday, Berlusconi said his “greatest desire” was to see Israel join the European Union.

    The Italian leader met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later described the meeting as “extremely important” to Jerusalem’s relations with Rome


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    20 Comments
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    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    ROME, need I say more.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    So typical of traveling to Israel. Why do we have to be fixated about the Holocaust and shuttling everyone that steps into Israel to Vyad Vashem? Jewish people have more to offer than Holocaust museums in their rich history. I don’t want my history to be defined by the Holocaust. Europeans don’t know a lot about the Jews because all they affiliate being Jewish with is the Holocaust. Why do we send every politician to Vyad Vashem as if to remind them that ONLY the Holocaust legitimizes our stay in Israel. We don’t have to make anyone feel guilty or seek empathy for them to respect our right to exist in Israel.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Like a breeze of fresh air . May G-d bless you !

    Robert
    Robert
    14 years ago

    with all due respect, i hope israel never joins the european union !

    Buchwalter
    Buchwalter
    14 years ago

    I lived in Italy from 1945 to 1950. In 1945 across the Brenner pass came trucks and trucks of survivors, men, women and children dressed in British uniforms and smuggled to Italy by the Bricha. On the Brenner pass an Italian Jewish Carabinieri Officer let all the trucks with their human cargo enter Italy. These shaarith hapleita later illegally went to “Palestine”

    Meira Lettieri Kingberg
    Meira Lettieri Kingberg
    14 years ago

    In my memory, I think PM Berlusconi is the first public figure to react so openly and to unashamedly state his horror. It will affect how he guides Italy, already the most pro-Jewish/Israel country in the EU in her position regarding Israel and the ME.

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    Israel should NEVER join the EU, then they would have to abide by all their ludicrous laws and no Jew would ever be safe in Israel again. The EU rightfully reasoned that the only way they can break the monopoly on power in the Middle East that Israel enjoys (due to her Dimona capabilities) is to bring her into their minions and wrest control and wreak havoc over her courts and self-interests and superb intelligence network.

    yad vashem
    yad vashem
    14 years ago

    i was in yad vashem today they kicked everyone out early i was wondering why now i understand

    Anonymous
    Anonymous
    14 years ago

    I hope you will publish my previous comment because, as Italian, I was warning you about the showman Berlusconi, who tries to please any foreign leader he meets, no matters if he has to be contradictory. I told you to follow his speech to Palestinians, because he would have tried to please them too. Well, I was right. Today he said to Abu Mazen that he suffers for the attack to Gaza as much as for the Shoah. Interesting…