There are thousands of reports, connections, and interviews. Giovan Battista Brunori is the Jerusalem bureau chief for RAI, the Italian national public broadcaster. He is one of the journalists reporting on the Middle East directly from the field. He has documented the profound transformation underway after the October 7 massacres, the beginning of a multi-front conflict waged by Israel against terrorism, and the implementation of a ceasefire in Gaza involving several Arab and Islamic countries.
Brunori’s new book Il nuovo Medioriente. Il declino della Mezzaluna sciita (The New Middle East. The Decline of the Shiite Crescent), published by Salomone Belforte, captures this ongoing transformation through the concrete experience of a reporter committed to wearing out the proverbial soles of his shoes on the ground.
He has also taken great risks. For example, on October 8, 2023, just 24 hours after Hamas attacked communities near Gaza, his crew found themselves caught in a firefight between terrorists and Israeli security forces in the Netiv HaAsara moshav.
Brunori, the first Italian journalist to report on Hamas’s rapes, begins his account with the Twelve-Day War launched last June against Iran’s fundamentalist regime to contain the nuclear threat. This was a pivotal moment in understanding the emerging new Middle East, where “Israel’s stance toward regional countries changes, while “the ambitious Iranian project of the Shiite Crescent,” centered on eradicating the Jewish state, suffers a significant setback.”
With Brunori, we enter a Hezbollah tunnel and relive the trauma of October 7: the hostages’ ordeal, street protests, and tensions in the West Bank sparked by new settlement expansion plans. The author also addresses the painful issue of the “normalization” of antisemitism in many Western societies due to the growing trend of “monstrification” of Israel. A significant section is dedicated to the future of the Abraham Accords.
Accompanying the texts and reflections is a collection of QR codes linking to Rai television reports. This book provides news and insights to help readers develop a clearer understanding of the events of the past two years and the direction “in which this troubled region is heading.”
According to Brunori, the only path to Middle Eastern stabilization is “full and sincere acceptance of the State of Israel, affirmation of the right to a Palestinian state, and education for peace among younger generations.” However, he adds, Israelis “will not accept a Palestinian state on their borders until they see that children in Palestinian schools are being educated for coexistence and peace rather than for hatred.”
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Translated by Matilde Bortolussi and revised by Alessia Tivan , students at the Advanced School for Interpreters and Translators of the University of Trieste, trainees in the newsroom of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities – Pagine Ebraiche