Fallaci, 71, is one of Europe's most respected journalists. During a career spanning four decades, she has covered the Vietnam war, the colonels' coup in Greece, the Middle East conflict, and many other world events. She has long been a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause.

The translation from the original Italian was not done by a professional, and is at times awkward. Yet Fallaci's anguish and pain comes through in all its poignancy.

I find it shameful
By Oriana Fallaci
Panorama (reprinted in Corriere della Sera) April 12, 2002

I find it shameful. Shameful, that in Italy there should be a procession of individuals dressed as suicide bombers, spewing vile abuse at Israel, holding up photographs of Israeli leaders with swastikas drawn on their foreheads, inciting people to hate the Jews. People who, just for the pleasure of seeing the Jews slaughtered again, would sell their own mother.

I find it shameful that the Catholic church allows a bishop, residing in the Vatican no less, a saintly man who was caught in Jerusalem with a shipment of arms for terrorists hidden in the secret compartments of his holy Mercedes, to participate in that procession. To plant himself in front of a microphone, and thank in the name of God the suicide bombers who massacre the Jews in pizzerias and supermarkets. To call them "martyrs who go to their deaths as one goes to a party."

I find it shameful that in France--the France of Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité--they burn synagogues, terrorize Jews, and desecrate their cemeteries. Shameful that the youth of Holland and Germany and Denmark flaunt the kaffiah, just as Mussolini's guards once flaunted the club and the fascist badge. Shameful that in universities throughout Europe, Palestinian students are sponsoring and nurturing a new wave of anti-Semitism. That in Sweden, they asked that the Nobel Peace Prize given to Shimon Peres in 1994 be taken back and conferred on that dove with the olive branch in his mouth, Arafat. Shameful that the distinguished members of the Nobel Committee should take this request into consideration and even respond to it.

I find it shameful that, here in Italy, state-run television stations contribute to the resurgent antisemitism, deploring only Palestinian deaths while glossing over Israeli deaths, reporting them hurriedly and only grudgingly. Shameful that in televised debates, they host with much deference the hoodlums with turban or kaffiah who only yesterday praised the slaughter in New York, and today sing hymns to the massacres in Jerusalem, in Haifa, in Netanya, in Tel Aviv. Shameful that the press does the same. That it is indignant because Israeli tanks surround the Nativity Church in Bethlehem, but not because the same church is desecrated by hundreds armed Palestinian terrorists. I find it shameful that, in citing the number of Israelis killed since the beginning of the second intifada (412 so far), a distinguished daily newspaper found it appropriate to trivialize their deaths by stressing that more people are killed there by traffic accidents.

I find it shameful that L'Osservatore Romano, the Pope's organ--yes, the same Pope who not long ago left a letter of apology to the Jews in the Wailing Wall--wrongly accuses of slaughter the very people who were slaughtered in their millions by Christian Europeans. Shameful that this newspaper denies the survivors of that people, who still bear tattooed numbers on their arms, the right to defend themselves from being slaughtered again. Shameful that in the name of Jesus Christ (a Jew without whom they would all be unemployed), the priests of our parishes and community centers flirt with the assassins of Jews in Jerusalem, Jews who cannot go out for a pizza or do their grocery shopping without getting blown up. I find it shameful that they are on the side of the very ones who inaugurated te rrorism, committing mass murder on airplanes, in airports, at the Olympics. On the side of those who today entertain themselves by killing western journalists by shooting them, abducting them, slitting their throats, decapitating them.

I find it shameful that nearly all of the Left, the Left that twenty years ago allowed one of its unions to deposit a coffin in a mafia-like warning in front of the synagogue of Rome, has forgotten the contribution made by the Jews to the fight against fascism. The supreme sacrifice made by Carlo and Nello Rossini, Leone Ginzburg, Umberto Terracini, Leo Valiani, Emilio Sereni, by women like my friend Anna Maria Enriques Agnoletti who was shot in Florence on June 12, 1944, by 75 of the 335 people killed at the Fosse Ardeatine, by the endless numbers of others killed under torture or in combat or before firing squads. Shameful that in part through the fault of the Left--or rather, primarily through the fault of the Left--Jews in Italian cities are once again afraid. This is the Left that inaugurates its congresses by applauding the the PLO envoy, the representative in Italy of the Palestinians who want the destruction of Israel. And in French cities and Dutch cities and Danish cities and German cities, it is the same.

I find it shameful that Jews tremble at the passage of the hoodlums dressed like suicide bombers, just as they trembled during Kristallnacht, the night when Hitler started the Hunt for the Jews. Shameful that in the name of their foolish, vile, dishonest, and self-serving political correctness, the usual opportunists and parasites exploit the word 'peace'. That in the name of 'peace' they absolve one side alone of its hate and bestiality. That in the name of a pacifism (in fact, conformism), the same people who once licked Pol Pot's boots are now inciting confused and uninformed souls. They trick them, corrupt them, carry them back half a century, to the time of the yellow star of David. Charlatans who care about the Palestinians about as much as I care about the charlatans.

I find it shameful that many Italians and other Europeans have chosen as their standard-bearer Arafat, that perfect gentleman. Arafat, a nonentity who, thanks to the money of the Saudi royal family, plays the eternal Mussolini, and in his megalomania believes that he will pass into history as the George Washington of Palestine. This blundering nincompoop who, when I interviewed him, was unable to put together a single coherent sentence. To make something publishable out of that interview cost me a tremendous effort, and I concluded that compared to him even Ghaddafi sounds like Leonardo da Vinci. Arafat, the brave warrior who always goes around in his uniform like Pinochet, yet has never participated in a single battle. War is something he sends others to do for him, the poor souls who believe in him. That pompous ass who, pretending to be a head of state, caused the collapse of the Camp David peace negotiations. That compulsive liar who only has a flash of sincerity when--in private, of course--he denies Israel's right to exist, and who contradicts himself every five minutes. Ever the double-crosser, lying even when you ask him for the time of day. The eternal terrorist, who knows only how to be a terrorist (while keeping himself safe). Who in the 1970s, about the time I interviewed him, even volunteered to train members of the notorious Bader-Meinhof Gang. And along with them, ten-year-old children. Now he is training them to become suicide bombers. This weathercock who keeps his wife at Paris, served and revered like a queen, while keeping his people mired in shit. He only allows them out of the shit to die, to kill and to die. Like the eighteen-year-old girls who, in order to earn equality with men, must strap explosives to their bodies blow themselves to smithereens together with their victims. And yet he is admired by many Italians. Just like they admired Mussolini. And many other Europeans al ong with them.

I find it shameful to witness the rise of a new fascism, a new nazism. A fascism all the more revolting because it is conducted and supported by those who hypocritically pose as liberals, or pacifists, or pious Christians, and who have the gall to label as a warmonger anyone who dares to tell them the truth. Like me.

I must point out that I have never taken kindly to that tragic Shakespearean figure, Sharon. ("I know you've come to add another scalp to your collection," he mused almost sadly when I came to interview him in 1982.) I have often had disagreements with the Israelis, ugly ones, and in the past I have defended the Palestinians a great deal. Maybe more than they deserved. But I stand with Israel, I stand with the Jews. I stand with them just as I did a young girl, fighting alongside them, and just as I did when the Anna Marias were shot. I defend their right to exist, to defend themselves, to not let themselves be slaughtered a second time. I am disgusted by the antisemitism of many Italians and other Europeans. I am ashamed of this blight that dishonors my country and all of Europe.