Anti-Semitism, defence of Israel, armed democracies. Bonino sidelined

The Emma Bonino whom her admirers will today forget to remember, on the day following her death, is an Emma Bonino who devoted part of her life to defending certain important rights, albeit ones that are less widely discussed than those for which she is best known: the right to abortion and the right to euthanasia. Bonino put her body and her life on the line for causes both lovable and detestable, striving in every way to be different from that ecumenical saintly figure described yesterday, just a few hours after her death. Bonino was not merely a champion of Europe’s right to grow, and thus of true Europeanism – not the phoney, rhetorical, static, hollow version championed by those who regard Europe as useful only when it acts as a cash machine. Starting from her defence of Europe, Bonino championed other rights – rights that were not exactly ecumenical. After 11 September, Bonino never ceased to remind us how dangerous it is to turn a blind eye to Islamist fundamentalism – the very force which, for the most oblivious among us, armed the hands of the attackers twenty-five years ago. She never ceased to remind us that religious fundamentalisms are akin to the communism of the last century and are ‘enemies of democracy’. In doing so—while remaining true to a sound and robust radical and Pannellian tradition, now trampled upon by many so-called heirs—she has never ceased, in recent years, to fight for a crucial and necessary cause: the defence of Israel.

Between 2001 and 2002, Bonino, together with Pannella, revived the proposal to admit Israel into the European Union. And she did so not as a provocation but, as it is fashionable to say today, out of consistency: those who fight for rights, those who fight for democracy, those who fight against dictatorships, those who fight against anti-Semitism, cannot stop criticising a democracy when it makes mistakes (and Bonino has often criticised Netanyahu in recent years), but they can never stop remembering the difference between those who defend a democracy and those who defend terrorism. There are rights that Bonino defended throughout her life which all those who will remember her fondly today cannot afford to forget, even if these rights risk upending the most ridiculous algorithms of political correctness. The right of democracies to protect freedom by force. The right of democracies to combat extremism, including Islamist extremism. The right – or rather, the duty – not to confuse the victims of aggression with the aggressors when it comes to defending besieged democracies such as Israel – and one can only imagine how much Bonino must have suffered at the sight of her supposed heirs being unable to distinguish between victims and aggressors, between democracy and dictatorships. On the defence of life, it was a joy to argue with Bonino. On the defence of democracy, it was a pleasure to see eye to eye with her.