Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist who writes on Middle Eastern and Jewish issues. He is a strong advocate of Israel, and is critical of both the Catholic Church[Paddy Monaghan, 'The Vatican Against Israel – J’accuse” by Giulio Meotti: a Catholic Response,' Catholics for Israel, 19 March 2014] and of Jews who are themselves critical of Israel, regarding them as abettors of anti-semitism. He was subject to accusations of engaging in plagiarizing the work of other journalists, and since has worked for Il Foglio and Arutz Sheva.
Biography
Meotti was born in
Arezzo, the son of a goldsmith, who had an extensive clientele of polyglot Jews from whom Meotti is said to have absorbed their cosmopolitan outlook.
He graduated in
philosophy at the University of Florence with a Phd about
George Steiner.
Criticism of Jewish critics of Israel
In his book
Jews against Israel (2014)
[Giulio Meotti, Ebrei contro Israele, (Salomone Belforte Editore 2014.] Meotti took to task a large number of Jewish critics of Israel's behavior towards Palestinians, accusing them variously of
Julien Benda, Jewish anti-Semitism, being
,
[Fiona Diwan,
'Questa brava gente che odia Israele,' Bet Magazine mosaico 11 settembre 2015
] suffering from what he claimed was a 'pathology' of
Anti-Zionism, or being 'deranged (
squilibrati) Jew-haters'. The list of notable Jews he censures for their attitudes towards Israel and defense Palestinian human rights includes
George Steiner, philosopher
Hannah Arendt, Franco-German politician Daniel Cohn-Bendit,
former Chancellor of Austria
Bruno Kreisky, screenwriter
Tony Kushner, director
Steven Spielberg, British historian
Eric Hobsbawm, moral philosopher
Peter Singer, British politician
Gerald Kaufman, French journalist
Jean Daniel, French essayist
Dominique Vidal, Argentinian civil rights activist
Jacobo Timerman, rabbi Arnold Wolf, philosopher
Edgar Morin, the United Nations special rapporteur for Palestinian rights Richard A. Falk, the American historian Norman Finkelstein, English film director
Mike Leigh, neuroscientist
Steven Rose and sociologist Hilary Rose, his wife, rabbi Michael Lerner, playwright
Harold Pinter, philosopher
Judith Butler, historian
Tony Judt,
Orientalism scholar
Maxime Rodinson, Italian novelist
Natalia Ginzburg, Italian
German studies Cesare Cases, antifascist intellectual
Emilio Sereni, poet and literary critic
Franco Fortini, Italian journalist
Gad Lerner, Italian playwright and musician
Moni Ovadia,
Israeli biochemist and Jewish intellectual Yeshayahu Leibowitz, Israeli historian
Shlomo Sand, Israeli political geographer
Oren Yiftachel, Israeli political scientist
Neve Gordon, Israeli journalist
Amira Hass, Israeli historian
Moshe Zimmermann, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé, Israeli conflict theorist Lev Grinberg, Israeli historians
Tom Segev and
Idith Zertal, Argentinian musician and comic
Danny Rabinovitch, Israeli novelists
Amos Oz,
David Grossman, and
Abraham Yehoshua, Argentinian conductor
Daniel Barenboim, diplomat
Martin Indyk, survivors of the Holocaust, such as Warsaw ghetto survivor
Marek Edelman,
Marion Kozak (mother of
David Miliband and
Ed Miliband), sociologist
Zygmunt Bauman, resistance leader Stéphane Hessel, Israeli political scientist
Zeev Sternhell, French historian Pierre Vidal-Naquet, Italian writer
Primo Levi,
and
Polish historian
Isaac Deutscher.
[Giulio Meotti, Chi sono gli ebrei in guerra con Gerusalemme, Il Foglio 11 Maggio 2014]
Meotti's polemic against Jewish writers, thinkers, and cultural figures critical of Israeli actions was described as 'vitriolic' by reviewer Stefano Caviglia writing for Panorama. Caviglia suggested that the real weakness of Jews who are overly critical of Israel lies in a putative inability to resist ‘external pressure’, in what he considers a ‘need to be accepted and considered politically correct by their readers or friends (Jews and non-Jews) of the same political leaning.' At the same time, he added, one should remember that the Jews have an enduring tendency for controversies, as summed up in the age old adage:’Two Jews, three opinions.’ [Stefano Caviglia, 'Ebrei contro Israele,' Panorama 30 April 2014.]
Work
Since 2003, Meotti has written for the Italian daily newspaper
Il Foglio, where he is the Cultural Editor. He has in the past written articles for the rightwing think tank
Gatestone Institute,
The Wall Street Journal,
[Giulio Meotti, 'Italia, R.I.P.,' Wall Street Journal 7 September 2010] Commentary,
National Review, the West Bank settler newspaper
Arutz Sheva,
Jerusalem Post,
Fox News,
Jüdische Allgemeine,
Yedioth Ahronoth and
FrontPage Magazine.
His book A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism, which was translated in English and Norwegian, was described by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin as "a valuable publication that presents a comprehensive picture of the many acts of terrorism against Israeli citizens."[ A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism Encounter Books 2010, blurb.]
Charges of plagiarism
In mid 2012, Meotti was accused by
Marc Tracy in
Tablet of being a 'serial plagiarist' for lifting, unacknowledged, material written by other journalists. The accusation was also endorsed by
Max Blumenthal who provided several other examples of apparent copyright violations.
[Max Blumenthal, 'Giulio Meotti:Serial plagiarist or common hasbarist?,' OpEdNews 19 May 2012.] When this documentation demonstrated that Meotti had a practice of copying other journalists emerged, not only
Ynet but also
Commentary magazine’s
John Podhoretz severed their relationship with him for having engaged in journalistic theft.
[Marc Tracy, 'Op-ed on Israeli Gay Rights Lifts Without Credit,' The Tablet May 16, 2012.][Marc Tracy, 'Italian Journalist Also Plagiarized in U.S. Outlets,' The Tablet May 22, 2012.] In self-defense, Meotti stated that if he indeed quoted without crediting his sources it was just carelessness, but claimed the accusations were actually a form of demonization of himself, whom he described as one of "the last and few pro-Israel journalists in Europe," part of an ad hominem campaign infused with envy which had been ongoing for some years.
[Sydney Smith, ‘ YNet Puts ‘Clarification’ on Op-ed with Plagiarized Content, Journalist Apologizes,’ IMedia Ethics 26 May 26, 2012] According to Blumenthal, Meotti considered the accusations as forms of incitement that put his life at risk.
[Max Blumenthal, 'Giulio Meotti: Serial Plagiarist or Common Hasbarist?:Update,' Al-Akhbar 18 May 2012:'Meotti responds by accusing me of placing him in danger, or at least causing him to "suffer." But so far, any suffering that Meotti has endured has been self-inflicted. Meotti: "But this is a personal attack against my person and work of ten years, a demonization, a witch hunt against one of the last and few pro-Israel journalists in Europe. An attack in which arrogant and failed journalists didn’t hesitate to call me ‘hasbarist’ and ‘zionist’ in Arab newspapers. It seems that they don’t understand the consequences and the severe risks that an author like me in Europe can suffer because of their incitement ".']
Political views
Meotti describes himself as a liberal conservative.
Private life
Meotti is married and has two children. He resides in Rome.
Bibliography
-
Il processo della scimmia. La guerra dell'evoluzione e le profezie di un vecchio biochimico, Lindau, 2006,
-
Non smetteremo di danzare. Le storie mai raccontate dei martiri d'Israele ( A New Shoah: The Untold Story of Israel's Victims of Terrorism), Lindau, 2009,
-
Ebrei contro Israele, Belforte Salomone, 2014,
-
Muoia Israele. La brava gente che odia gli ebrei, Rubbettino, 2015,
-
Hanno ucciso «Charlie Hebdo». Il terrorismo e la resa dell'Occidente: la libertà di espressione è finita, Lindau, 2015,
-
La fine dell'Europa, Cantagalli, 2016,
-
Il suicidio della cultura occidentale: Così l'Islam radicale sta vincendo, Lindau, 2018,
