Enzo Bettiza
Enzo Bettiza (b. 1927) is an Italian journalist and historian. A scion of the ethnic-Italian minority in Dalmatia (Yugoslavia), he served as correspondent for La Stampa in Vienna and Moscow before joining Corriere della Sera and then co-founding Il Giornale. He subsequently returned to La Stampa as a columnist. He was elected Italian senator, then MEP (first as a liberal, then as a socialist). A Middle East specialist, Bettiza has written several books on the region as well as on Communism and its decline.
The Sweden Democrats’ breakthrough at the polls on 19 September is no anomaly: throughout northern European, in societies hitherto admired for their tolerance and cohesion, overtly xenophobic parties are now riding a wave of anti-immigrant sentiment. 
The tension between Turkey and Israel after the fatal Israeli naval raid on the flotilla of pro-Palestinian activists goes far beyond a breakdown in the traditionally amicable relations between Ankara and Jerusalem. This is in fact the most acute crisis to date in what used to be the solid and productive relations between Turkey and the West.