Middle East is the latest arena of political recalibration for Italy’s right-wing but pragmatic Meloni

Filed 1h ago · Via The Conversation · The Buffoon Desk

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Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40)

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Circusmonti · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has cultivated close ties with Israel while facing domestic opinion that has turned sharply against it — 75% of Italians now view Israel unfavorably, up from 66% in 2025, per Pew. In April 2026 Italy suspended automatic renewal of its defense cooperation agreement with Israel after Israeli forces fired warning shots at a marked Italian UN convoy in Lebanon.

Despite the symbolic move, Italy declined to join the UK and France in banning West Bank goods and remains a reliable backer of Israel in international forums. Italy also hosts Israeli-Lebanese talks and maintains the largest European contingent in UNIFIL, the Lebanon peacekeeping mission whose mandate ends December 31, 2026.

Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon on September 6, 2026 killed several people according to Lebanese authorities, with Israel citing responses to Hezbollah, complicating Meloni's balancing act between Beirut and Jerusalem while she simultaneously deepens economic ties with Saudi Arabia, including a $10 billion 2025 agreement.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Meloni's trick is talking to everybody without quite promising anybody anything, which works right up until the people getting shelled expect more than a phone call. Suspending a defense agreement's automatic renewal while still backing Israel in every forum that counts is the diplomatic equivalent of telling both neighbors you're on their side of the property dispute. It buys her a seat at every table, but sooner or later somebody at those tables is going to ask her to actually pick a chair.

Source: Read the original at The Conversation → Scored: Waltz (Tschikovsky Op. 40) · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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