Fiamma Nirenstein

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Fiamma Nirenstein

Fiamma Nirenstein (Florence, 18 December 1945) is an Italian journalist born in Florence, Italy and has for some decades been based in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo. She is married to Israeli news photographer Ofer Eshed. She specializes in writing on terrorism, the Arab-Israeli conflict, anti-Semitism and democracy in the Middle East. Nirenstein teaches Middle East History at Luiss University in Rome. She is a member of the Global Forum against Antisemitism instituted by Nathan Sharansky. She is a member of the board of the Italian Foundation Magna Carta and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and of the Hudson Institute, Washington. She was director of the Italian Institute of Culture (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) in Tel Aviv in '93 and '94. She has introduced and written prefaces for translations of the works of Bernard Lewis, Nathan Sharansky, and Ruthie Bloom in Italy. The underlying idea that runs through all Fiamma Nirenstein's work is the connection between totalitarianism, terrorism anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel. Nirenstein was elected to the Italian Parliament in the April 2008 elections in Italy, as a member of Silvio Berlusconi's right-wing conservative coalition. ^[1]

[edit] Career

She graduated in modern history from the University of Florence. Her career in journalism began in 1977. Nirenstein writes predominantly on Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also on European history, the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and monotheism. She has written for Commentary, La Stampa and Panorama. Today, she is a columnist and a features writer for Paolo Berlusconi's right-wing Il Giornale^[2].

Her interest in these fields arose from travelling widely all over the world to report on foreign affairs as columnist and correspondent for a number of major magazines (Panorama; L'Espresso and Epoca). Nirenstein has written nine books, her most recent being Israele Siamo Noi (Israel is Us: March 2007). Nirenstein has been awarded 16 journalistic and literary prizes. A mix of two of her books L'abbandono, ('The abandonment, how the West betrayed the Jews', and 'The liberal anti-Semite') has been translated into English under the title 'Terror, the new anti-Semitism and the war against the West'.^[3]

Nirenstein contributes to the New York Sun, to Commentary Magazine, and has written for the magazine Moment. Her writings are collected in four American anthologies, and her work as a journalist is quoted at length in 'Bias' by Bernard Goldberg^[4] as an example of good journalism on terrorism. One day after the events of 9/11, the Wall Street Journal quoted at length her article in Commentary Magazine to clarify the background to the disaster.

Fiamma Nirenstein has made many documentaries for Italian TV, the latest entitled Settlers, about the disengagement from Gaza as seen through the lives of the Israelis involved in it. She is now preparing a new film about Israel and what she regards as the Iranian threat. She is interviewed frequently on Italian TV and radio and on 2006 she conceived and conducted a program on foreign affairs, 'Ore diciotto/Mondo', on the public channel RAI 2. She has a weekly column on the radio. Her journalistic career includes a number of interviews with world and regional leaders, from Rajiv Gandhi to Deng Xiaoping, from the protagonists of the Eastern bloc resistance to the Soviet Union in the eighties to many important figures of the Israeli and Palestinian worlds, from Arafat to Sharon. She has been prominent in Italy for her opinions on anti-Semitism, anti-israelianism and the Left. She was an official speaker at the OCSE Berlin forum on Anti-Semitism, as well as at the Boston Conference of October 31, 2004 on 'Anti-Semitism, the Press and Europe'. In June 2006, at a symposium of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, she gave a lecture on 'Multiculturalism, the Left and Anti-Semitism' .

[edit] Notable views

'every Jew in the world is an Israeli even if he's not aware of it. Anyone who doesn't know it is making a big mistake.' ^[5]

'morally speaking, there mustn't be negotiations with Hamas, which thinks that Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs. You can't negotiate with cannibals, who eat human beings.'^[6]

[edit] Books by Fiamma Nirenstein

Israele Siamo Noi (2007) On the State of Israel as archetype for a liberal democracy at war with terror.
La Sabbia di Gaza (2006) On the Israeli disengagement from Gaza.
Terror: The New Anti-Semitism and the War Against the West (2005) An English-language selection of various articles.
Gli Antisemiti Progressisti (2004) A look at the new anti-Semitism.
Islam, la guerra e la speranza (2003) An interview with Bernard Lewis.
L'Abbandono, come l'Occidente ha tradito gli ebrei (2002). A book that argues the West has betrayed the Jewish people.
Un solo Dio, tre verità (2001).(One god, three truths)
Come le cinque dita di una mano – una famiglia di ebrei da Firenze a Gerusalemme (1998) Written with her family.
Israele: una pace in guerra (1996).)Israel, at peace in war)
Il Razzista Democratico (1990).(The Democratic racist)