Italy suspends defense deal with ‘Israel’ over war on Iran, Lebanon
Al Mayadeen | April 14, 2026
Italy has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of its defence cooperation agreement with “Israel”, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Tuesday, citing the ongoing wars in the Middle East.
Meloni’s right-wing government, which has been among “Israel’s” closest allies in Europe, has in recent weeks grown increasingly critical of Israeli military actions during the wars, particularly strikes affecting Lebanon. Italian troops deployed there under a United Nations mandate have also been impacted.
Speaking in Verona, northern Italy, Meloni said the government had opted to suspend the agreement’s renewal “in light of the current situation,” according to Italian news agencies. A Defense Ministry source added that the move would end military training cooperation between Italy and “Israel”.
The decision was taken on Monday during a meeting involving Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the source said.
The agreement at hand
The defense cooperation framework between Italy and “Israel” is based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed on June 16, 2003, establishing formal collaboration in the military and defense sectors.
The agreement entered into force after ratification by the Italian parliament on April 13 2016, providing a legal basis for structured bilateral defence cooperation between the two.
The June 16, 2003, defense cooperation agreement between Italy and “Israel” outlines collaboration across military training, joint exercises, and defense industry partnerships, including research and development projects.
It allows exchanges of military personnel, sharing of technical expertise, and coordinated programs between the two sides’ armed forces and the Italian Defense Ministry and the Israeli War Ministry. The framework also supports procurement cooperation, enabling each side to acquire military systems and services from the other.
Examples of its implementation include Italy’s purchase of Israeli unmanned aerial vehicles such as the IAI Heron and IAI Eitan, while “Israel” acquired Italian training aircraft like the Alenia Aermacchi M-346 Master.
The agreement further enabled joint pilot training programs, reciprocal use of military facilities, and industrial offsets involving Italian defense firms participating in Israeli-linked projects under agreed confidentiality and regulatory provisions.
The agreement includes a clause for automatic renewal every five years unless one party formally notifies termination before the end of a cycle. One such renewal was scheduled for June 8, 2025, under this mechanism.
Additional provisions have been reported to include confidentiality requirements, limiting public disclosure of joint military activities conducted under the framework of the agreement.
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Book Review
On Herd Mentality
By Jeb Smith | April 14, 2026
I no longer trust “we the people,” because of the powers influencing them. Media and government schooling form their general ideas on reality and governance. Therefore, it’s not a case of the voter choosing the politicians. Instead, the system is conditioning and conforming the voter to the authorities’ desires.
In democracies, the people are kept occupied working and paying taxes, too busy to acquire information outside the approved sources. You will find they know and care far more about the next iPhone than political philosophy. Of those who hold some interest, 95% just toe the party line, holding the same opinion as the primary media source they listen to. They lack both the desire and time to expand their horizons.
Media’s purpose is to conform people’s thought to a preferred goal, which is why Republican and Democratic voters both firmly hold their parties’ general stances, reciting the same talking points. The people do not originate ideas; their thoughts are fed to them by the media so they can consume, digest, and parrot back whatever they are served. When it comes to politics, we rarely think for ourselves. We are told what to think.
Watch PBS, MSNBC and read your local newspaper for six months, and you will receive a particular view and understanding of the world. Then listen to The Mike Church Show, The Blaze, and The Daily Wire, and you will get not just another perspective but a whole different world of facts and events. The world people believe they live in can be entirely different depending on their news sources.
We enjoy seeing the enemy humiliated, which describes why those engulfed in politics love their preferred media sources; they keep returning for more like a drug addict. Networks ensure their “experts” align with the worldview they and their audience desire. The people who watch PBS, BBC, and so forth expect a specific perspective to be presented. Fox News watchers demand the same. In doing this, we both encourage and assure we are misled.
In their book Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, professors Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels argue, based on substantial research, that voters do not decide the party platform and agenda. Instead, the parties control the “ideologies” of the voters. When the party the voter identifies with changes its position, the individuals also change theirs. They discovered the individual would quickly adopt the views of their group; they will ignore or change their own opinions over time to fit in with the collective they identify with. Achen and Bartels wrote “group memberships largely drove policy views, not vice versa.” … continue
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