Fiamma Nirenstein
Encyclopedia
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
, journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
. She is a member of Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi
Silvio Berlusconi , also known as Il Cavaliere – from knighthood to the Order of Merit for Labour which he received in 1977 – is an Italian politician and businessman who served three terms as Prime Minister of Italy, from 1994 to 1995, 2001 to 2006, and 2008 to 2011. Berlusconi is also the...
's conservative coalition government (first elected in April 2008) and is Vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Italian Chamber of Deputies
Italian Chamber of Deputies
The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...
. As a journalist and author the underlying idea that runs through all Fiamma Nirenstein's work is the connection between totalitarianism
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
, terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and hatred of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Nirenstein was born in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
and lives part of the year in Gilo
Gilo
Gilo is a neighborhood in southern East Jerusalem with a population of 40,000, mostly Jewish. It is one of the five ring neighborhoods of Jerusalem and is built on land in the West Bank that was annexed to Israel in 1980 under the Jerusalem Law. The international community regards it as an...
, an Israeli settlement
Israeli settlement
An Israeli settlement is a Jewish civilian community built on land that was captured by Israel from Jordan, Egypt, and Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and is considered occupied territory by the international community. Such settlements currently exist in the West Bank...
which is a neighborhood beyond the Green Line
Green Line
- Geographic demarcations :* Green Line, a name for the Gothic Line or "Linea Gotica", a German defensive line in Italy during World War II, renamed the "Green Line" in June 1944...
within the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. She is married to Israeli news photographer Ofer Eshed. She specializes in writing on terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
, the Arab-Israeli conflict, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and democracy
Democracy
Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...
in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Nirenstein teaches Middle East History
History of the Middle East
This article is a general overview of the history of the Middle East. For more detailed information, see articles on the histories of individual countries and regions...
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
Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs
The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs is a public policy think tank devoted to research and analysis of critical issues facing the Middle East. The center is located in Jerusalem, Israel...
and of the Hudson Institute
Hudson Institute
The Hudson Institute is an American think tank founded in 1961, in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, by futurist, military strategist, and systems theorist Herman Kahn and his colleagues at the RAND Corporation...
, Washington. In addition, she is a member of the International Advisory Board of NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor
NGO Monitor is a non-governmental organization based in Jerusalem, Israel whose stated aim is to generate and distribute critical analysis and reports on the output of the international NGO community for the benefit of government policy makers, journalists, philanthropic organizations and the...
She was director of the Italian Institute of Culture (Istituto Italiano di Cultura) in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
in '93 and '94. She has introduced and written prefaces for translations of the works of Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis
Bernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
, Nathan Sharansky, and Ruthie Bloom in Italy.
Career
She graduated from the University of FlorenceUniversity of Florence
The University of Florence is a higher study institute in Florence, central Italy. One of the largest and oldest universities in the country, it consists of 12 faculties...
, where she majored in modern history. Her journalism career began in 1977. Nirenstein predominantly writes about Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also about European history
History of Europe
History of Europe describes the history of humans inhabiting the European continent since it was first populated in prehistoric times to present, with the first human settlement between 45,000 and 25,000 BC.-Overview:...
, the Holocaust, anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
and monotheism
Monotheism
Monotheism is the belief in the existence of one and only one god. Monotheism is characteristic of the Baha'i Faith, Christianity, Druzism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Samaritanism, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism.While they profess the existence of only one deity, monotheistic religions may still...
. She has written for Commentary
Commentary (magazine)
Commentary is a monthly American magazine on politics, Judaism, social and cultural issues. It was founded by the American Jewish Committee in 1945. By 1960 its editor was Norman Podhoretz, a liberal at the time who moved sharply to the right in the 1970s and 1980s becoming a strong voice for the...
, La Stampa
La Stampa
La Stampa is one of the best-known, most influential and most widely sold Italian daily newspapers. Published in Turin, it is distributed in Italy and other European nations. The current owner is the Fiat Group.-History:...
and Panorama
Panorama (Italian magazine)
Panorama is a right-wing Italian-language news magazine.-Ownership:The magazine is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house...
. Today, she is a columnist and features writer for Paolo Berlusconi
Paolo Berlusconi
Paolo Berlusconi is the younger brother of Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. He is editor of the newspaper Il Giornale and the head of the investment group Paolo Berlusconi Finanzaria...
's right-wing Il Giornale
Il Giornale
il Giornale is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan, Italy.-History:The newspaper was planned in 1972 by the journalist Indro Montanelli, together with the colleague Enzo Bettiza, after some disagreements with the new pro-left editorial line adopted by the newspaper Corriere della Sera,...
.
These topics initially captured her interest when she was travelling around the world as a foreign-affairs columnist and correspondent for major magazines, including (Panorama
Panorama (Italian magazine)
Panorama is a right-wing Italian-language news magazine.-Ownership:The magazine is published by Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, the largest Italian publishing house...
; L'Espresso
L'Espresso
l'Espresso is an Italian newsmagazine. It is one of the two most prominent Italian weeklies, the other being Panorama. Since the latter has been acquired by right-wing tycoon and politician Silvio Berlusconi, l'Espresso enjoys the reputation of being the main politically independent newsmagazine...
and Epoca). Nirenstein has written nine books, most recently Israele Siamo Noi (Israel is Us: March 2007). Nirenstein has been awarded 16 journalistic and literary prizes. Her two books L'abbandono, ('The abandonment, how the West betrayed the Jews', and 'The liberal anti-Semite') have been combined and translated into English under the title 'Terror, the new anti-Semitism and the war against the West'.
Nirenstein contributed and contributes to the New York Sun
New York Sun
The New York Sun was a weekday daily newspaper published in New York City from 2002 to 2008. When it debuted on April 16, 2002, adopting the name, motto, and masthead of an otherwise unrelated earlier New York paper, The Sun , it became the first general-interest broadsheet newspaper to be started...
, Commentary Magazine, and the magazine Moment
Moment (magazine)
Moment is an American Jewish magazine. It publishes articles related to Jewish culture, lifestyle, politics, and religion. Moment is not affiliated with any Jewish organization or religious movement, and its articles and columnists represent a diverse range of political views.-History:Nobel Peace...
. Her writings are collected in four American anthologies, and she is quoted at length in 'Bias' by Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Goldberg
Bernard Richard Goldberg , also known as Bernie Goldberg, is an eleven-time Emmy Award-winning American writer, journalist, and political commentator...
to exemplify quality writing on the subject of terrorism. The day after 9/11
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, the Wall Street Journal quoted an article she wrote for Commentary Magazine to help clarify the historical background of the incident.
Fiamma Nirenstein has made several documentaries for Italian TV. As a settler herself, her latest work Settlers
Settler (disambiguation)
Settlers are people who have migrated from the land of their birth, or who take up residence on land and cultivate it, as opposed to nomads.Settler or settlers may also refer to:...
, addresses the disengagement from Gaza
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
from the perspective of the Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
is involved. She is currently preparing a film about Israel and the threat she feels is posed by Iran
Iran and weapons of mass destruction
Iran is not known to currently possess weapons of mass destruction and has signed treaties repudiating the possession of weapons of mass destruction including the Biological Weapons Convention, the Chemical Weapons Convention, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty...
. She is frequently interviewed by the Italian media, and has a weekly radio program. In 2006, she conceived and conducted 'Ore diciotto/Mondo', a program about foreign affairs
Foreign Affairs
Foreign Affairs is an American magazine and website on international relations and U.S. foreign policy published since 1922 by the Council on Foreign Relations six times annually...
on the public channel RAI 2
Rai Due
Rai 2 is one of the three main television channels broadcast by Italian public television company RAI alongside with Rai 1 and Rai 3. Rai 2 first started transmissions on November 4, 1961...
. Her career as a journalist includes numerous interviews with world leaders and political figureheads, including Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...
, Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping
Deng Xiaoping was a Chinese politician, statesman, and diplomat. As leader of the Communist Party of China, Deng was a reformer who led China towards a market economy...
, members of the Eastern bloc
Eastern bloc
The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...
resistance, leaders of the 1980s-era Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, and key figures of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
and Sharon
Ariel Sharon
Ariel Sharon is an Israeli statesman and retired general, who served as Israel’s 11th Prime Minister. He has been in a permanent vegetative state since suffering a stroke on 4 January 2006....
. She is well-known in Italy for her opinions on anti-Semitism, anti-israelianism
Anti-Zionism
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionistic views or opposition to the state of Israel. The term is used to describe various religious, moral and political points of view in opposition to these, but their diversity of motivation and expression is sufficiently different that "anti-Zionism" cannot be...
and the Left
The Left
The Left may refer to some parties in different countries:* The Left or Die Linke* The Left or Déi Lénk* The Left – The Rainbow or La Sinistra – L'Arcobaleno, Italy...
. She was an official speaker at the OCSE Berlin forum on Anti-Semitism, as well as at the October 31, 2004 Boston Conference on 'Anti-Semitism, the Press and Europe'. At a symposium of the Vidal Sassoon
Vidal Sassoon
Vidal Sassoon, CBE is a widely recognised British hairdresser, credited with creating a simple geometric, "Bauhaus-inspired" hair style, also called the bob...
International Center for the Study of Antisemitism at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
in June 2006, she gave a lecture on 'Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism
Multiculturalism is the appreciation, acceptance or promotion of multiple cultures, applied to the demographic make-up of a specific place, usually at the organizational level, e.g...
, the Left and Anti-Semitism' .
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.'
'morally speaking, there mustn't be negotiations with HamasHamasHamas is the Palestinian Sunni Islamic or Islamist political party that governs the Gaza Strip. Hamas also has a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades...
, which thinks that Jews are the sons of monkeys and pigs. You can't negotiate with cannibals, who eat human beings.'
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 GazaGazaGaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
. - 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-SemitismNew anti-SemitismNew antisemitism is the concept that a new form of antisemitism has developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, emanating simultaneously from the far-left, radical Islam, and the far-right, and tending to manifest itself as opposition to Zionism and the State of Israel.The concept...
. - Islam, la guerra e la speranza (2003) An interview with Bernard LewisBernard LewisBernard Lewis, FBA is a British-American historian, scholar in Oriental studies, and political commentator. He is the Cleveland E. Dodge Professor Emeritus of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University...
. - 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)
External links
- Official website
- Articles written on il Giornale
- Most recent articles by Fiamma Nirenstein from New York Sun