Khalid Amayreh grills Franco Frattini: "An imbecile or an ignoramus; possibly both"

"Rag-assed Imperialism", a fitting caption for Franco Frattini's inept and lackadaisical political "parable"...

Palestinian journalist and commentator Khalid Amayreh took note of Franco Frattini's recent gazan escapade, and didn't like what he noticed; he then committed his dissatisfaction to a piece which stands to testify what being "grilled" by a caustic and ingenuous journalist actually means. Being vilified by an Okhlahoma University BA and University of Southern Illinois MA is some honour (even if we can be fairly sure that Frattini would have gladly left that honour to someone else) and we consider our news outlet far too small and unimportant and our collective talent far too small to add anything relevant to Amayreh's scathing judgment.

The english-speaking reader, however, could be interested in some facts about Frattini, which could be useful to someone lucky enough not to have to call such a sorry excuse for a politician a Minister of his own country's executive branch.

A non-entity from Italy's Socialist Party he served as a minor figure in some italian governments of the early 90s before the implosion of most of Italy's post-war political parties and nomenklatura projected him to the forefront simply for lack of opposition.

Joining the then-surgent cohorts of right-wing mogul Silvio Berlusconi he was finally made Foreign Minister in 2002, after the former minister (Renato Ruggiero, a career diplomat) resigned --nauseated by Berlusconi's invadence in his daily work- and after that the eclectic and mercurial network-owner had filled the interim for several months.
He signaled himself for his militant pro-Usa, pro-Nato and pro-Israel stances, the latter justified by his jewish ancestry and his militant devotion to zionism.

In 2006 he filled the seat of EU Commissioner for justice, trying to pass restrictive legislation on Holocaust debate, trying to set up a massive interception database to wiretap every phone line and cellular network in Europe and trying to pass racist and unacceptable measures against the personal freedom of movement of EU citizens, for which he was harshly censored by the Europarliament; luckily these initiatives garnered little to no support.

The EU sighed with relief when he abandoned his post in 2008 to join the ranks of the 3rd Berlusconi government in Italy, where he was made Foreign Minister again. This time he signaled himself for not interrupting his seaside vacation when the 2008 South Ossetia war erupted. Since the war was sparked by Georgian aggression towards Russia and Georgia had been armed and instigated to aggressivity by the Israeli army it appeared clear that Frattini didn't want to have to take actions which could have been seen as detrimental to his israeli allies and compatriots.

"Look, honey! Fireworks!" Frattini inspired ridicule in the international diplomatic community for refusing to call off his seaside holidays when the South Ossetia 2008 war broke out.

But, before that, he was still in the EU when its observers (among others) acknowledged the regularity and fairness of the 2006 Palestinian political elections which Hamas won with a wide margin. Yet he seems not to remember that, as it's obvious from his refusal to meet the legitimate Palestinian Gov't while in Gaza. How could have he missed such an important piece of information on the Palestinian question?

During his time as EU Commissioner for justice Frattini became notorious for trying to outlaw Holocaust debate and for buffonish exhibitions like the one pictured, when he lashed out at "China" for "copying Ferraris".

Oh, yes! Frattini the buffoon was busy waving around colour photos of Chinese "imitation" Ferraris and clamoring for EU "sanctions" against those pasty yellow 'chinamen' culpable of such an affront to the respected tradition of Italian sports car design and manufacture! That's why he missed the Palestinian elections!

Communist and pro-Palestine cartoonist Vauro commented thus Frattini's lack of action on behalf of Italian peace activists captured by israeli marine commandos during the Freedom Flottilla raid in May 2010.

Also absent-minded and limp-wristed was his 'reaction' (or lack thereof) when Israeli naval commandos raided the Freedom Flottilla MV Mavi Marmara, slaughtering a score of pacifists and detaining Italian activists for days; after all: "They were neither killed...nor shot!".