“The price of military action is disproportionate and a strategic mistake for Israel.” Word from Melvin Schlein, father of Elly, secretary of the Democratic Party. Schlein, a professor of political science at the Franklin University of Lugano, is now retired, is 84 years old and lives in Agno, a small town in the canton of Ticino, about twenty kilometers away […]
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“The price ofMilitary operation And disproportionate and for Israel It is a Strategic mistake“. Word of Melvin Schleinfather of EllySecretary of Democratic Party. Professor the Political Science At the Franklin University From LuganoSchlein, now retired, is 84 years old and lives in Agnoa small community in the Canton of Ticino about twenty kilometers away Varese. From his house, a terraced house, the father of the secretary of the Democratic Party gave an interview to La Domenica, a weekly supplement to the Corriere del Ticino. “We always talked a lot about politics, maybe that explains the paths our daughters took,” says the professor, who is also the father of Susanna SchleinAdvisor to the Italian Embassy in Athens, target of an anarchist attack last December.
Ashkenazi Jew – “but I’m not particularly attentive“I’ve never been” – Schlein explains that you don’t particularly feel the family’s origins: “You’ve never said anything before, Mel,” he smiles. “But no one has ever asked me many questions.” The professor was born and grew up in New Jersey, USA, where his parents moved as refugees in 1913 from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. “We were very poornothing but stereotypes,” he says, remembering being a victim of it anti-Semitism at the same time, his uncles and cousins stayed home Lviv (Ukrainian city that was Polish before 1945) were murdered by the Nazis in concentration camps. “One time they covered me with bruises. “Like many Jews, I discovered that I was Jewish in this way: I didn’t know it, others taught me,” the professor continues. Who remembers how in the suburbs, where his parents had a small clothing store, the people arriving from Europe “brought with them the prejudices and conflicts that my parents had luckily escaped in time?” Schlein would later be a supporter of the Zionist movementfor which he also sought offers in New Jersey: “We dreamed of a democratic and open country, with good relations with the neighbors, a.” Home for a people on the run about the horrors of the Holocaust that we had recently discovered.” And in the first years of the State of Israel he will work there as a volunteer Kibbutz From Nahal Oza few kilometers away Gaza: “The situation on the border with Gaza has never been easy. We slept with him back in the 60s machine gun under the bed”.
Schlein says he experienced the Hamas attack with “horror and great concern,” especially for relatives and friends living in Israel: “I have several,” says the professor, who is quite pessimistic about the future. “It is not the first time that we have seen an intensification of the conflict, often after periods of detente such as those initiated by the EU Abraham Accordsand I have to say that I’m not very optimistic about the prospects of a solution.” Then you criticize Benjamin Netanyahu and that Israeli politics: “Elly strongly called for a humanitarian ceasefire. You don’t have to be an expert to understand that a dozen Hamas commanders killed aren’t worth it Thousands of civilian casualtiesthe price of the military operation is disproportionate and for Israel It is a Strategic mistake“. And although there are “pacifist voices in Israel and also in Gaza” today, “they have become one.” silent minority: But I want to believe that this spirit and this dialogue, which has been building for a long time, has not died under the calls of opposing extremisms. At least I hope so.” Professor Schlein seems to disagree with his daughter about the two-state solution. “Everyone is talking about the solution two states. Elly too, but I told her: I don’t believe much in it. It would mean structuring the relationships and a institutional recognition what a part of Arab society cannot accept.”
The anti-Semitic demonstrations also worry the father of the Democratic Party Secretary. “Unfortunately, this is nothing new either, but the frequency of the episodes and the numbers that come from, for example France They make an impression,” he says. To those who accuse the Democratic Party of being less confident in distancing itself from it Hamas In comparison to the other socialist parties in the EU, the secretary’s father replies: “There was and is a decisive condemnation”, even if “a certain part of the left” due to post-colonialist positions “unfortunately fell into the acts of historical anti-Semitism.” from Right Whatever is there is certainly not gone. It is an evil that we carry with us, always ready to reawaken, and now it has found new strength.”