Italian opposition leader Elly Schlein, whose father is Jewish, backs Giorgia Meloni in Trump split over Israel

JTA – Until this week, Italian prime minister Giorgio Miloni was allies with her Israeli and American counterparts, and adversaries with Elly Schlein, Italy’s opposition leader. 

Now, Meloni is at odds with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump, her fellow conservatives, and getting a boost from Schlein, a liberal whose father is an American Jew. 

The causes of the breach: the US-Israel war on Iran, and the pope. 

Schlein threw her support behind Meloni after Trump attacked her for defending Pope Leo XIV, who said on Friday that “G-d doesn’t bless any conflict” and that Christians should never be on the side of those who drop bombs. The criticism triggered a strong response from Trump, who said on Sunday that the Catholic leader was “terrible on foreign policy” and accused him of “catering to the radical left”. 

That didn’t go over well in Italy, where about three-quarters of people are Catholic. In a statement on Monday, Meloni came to Pope Leo’s defence, calling Trump’s remarks “unacceptable” and adding, “The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war.” 

This marked a notable public rift between the two leaders, as Meloni has long been one of Trump’s closest political allies in Europe. The rift deepened the next day, when Meloni announced that Italy had ended its defence agreement with Israel, marking another significant shift in the right-wing government’s international relations. 

“In light of the current situation, the government has decided to suspend the automatic renewal of the defence agreement with Israel,” Meloni told reporters in Verona, adding, “When there are things we don’t agree ⁠with, we act accordingly.” 

Trump wasn’t happy that Meloni had rebuffed his pressure to join the Iran conflict and said as much on Wednesday on Fox News. 

“She’s been negative,” Trump said. “Anybody that turned us down to helping with this Iran situation, we do not have the same relationship.” 

Enter Schlein and a rare moment of cross-party unity in Italy. 

Schlein has led Italy’s Democratic Party since 2023. She has said she is “very proudly the daughter of a Jewish father”, the American-Italian scholar Melvin Schlein, and that she has faced antisemitism even though she herself is not Jewish. 

Her father grew up in New Jersey and lived on Kibbutz Nahal Oz, one of the communities ravaged on 7 October, during the 1960s. He has joined his daughter in criticising Netanyahu, but told an Italian paper that while she believes in a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he does not. The relative of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, he has said he is concerned about rising antisemitism in Europe ‒ and that while he generally shares his daughter’s politics, he is concerned that some on the left have joined with the right in adopting antisemitic ideas. 

On Wednesday, speaking in the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Schlein said she wished to express her “strongest condemnation” of Trump’s “attack on Meloni for having dutifully expressed solidarity with Pope Leo”. 

She also emphasised her own opposition to the Iran war. 

“I want to reiterate that Italy is a free and sovereign country, and our Constitution is clear: Italy repudiates war,” Schlein said, to a standing ovation. “No foreign head of state can allow himself to attack, threaten, or disrespect our country and our government. We are adversaries in this chamber, but we are all Italian citizens and representatives of Italians, and we will not accept attacks or threats against the government and our country.” 

Schlein had welcomed the suspension of the defence agreement and called on Italy to “stop obstructing” the suspension of the Association Agreement between Israel and the European Union, which governs trade and political relations between the entities. 

This week, a petition by the European Citizens’ Initiative to end the agreement reached the required one million signatures needed to trigger a formal review by the European Commission. 

“We, along with other progressive forces, have been calling for this for some time, because the dignity of this country is also measured by its respect for international law,” Schlein said. 

The Israeli Foreign Ministry dismissed the suspension. While Italy is the third-biggest arms exporter to Israel, following the United States and Germany, it accounted for only 1.3% of Israeli arms imports between 2021 and 2025, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. 

“We have no security agreement with Italy. We have a memorandum of understanding from ‌many years ⁠ago that has never contained any substantive content,” the ministry said in a statement. “This will not affect Israel’s security.”