Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi arrived in Israel on Tuesday, 21 July 2015, and was welcomed at the airport by Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely.

PM Matteo attended a bilateral conference on innovation organized by the Italian Embassy in Israel and Tel Aviv University entitled "Italy-Israel: Knowledge as an engine for growth". Israel and Italy cooperate on a broad range of scientific projects, such as the Italian-Israeli Laboratory on Neuroscience at TAU, as well decades-long research collaborations in the fields of Italian history, Italian Jewry, Italian art, Classics, Mediterranean studies and many other fields.

PM Renzi made it a point to make the University his first stop on his inaugural visit to Israel as prime minister.

New startups developed by Italian and Israeli entrepreneurs were also presented. The most well-known is WAZE, a navigational app co-founded by TAU graduate Uri Levine and sold to Google for over $1 billion.
 
"This conference symbolizes the close partnership between Israel and Italy and the building of bridges between the two countries," said PM Renzi. "I chose to start my visit here at Tel Aviv University, the center of the Israeli start-up nation, which has become for us Italians a model and a close partner. Israel is a country of growth and opportunity - filled with incredible success stories and great dreamers. This is a great message for our country. We can share the dream with Israel." 
 
The Prime Minister stressed the importance of a recently signed agreement for a joint cyber lab between TAU and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in the area of cyber security. "Cooperation with Israel in the cyber area is a key factor in Italy’s security and future," Renzi said.


Italian PM Renzi at Yad Vashem
Copyright: Avi Dodi

Following a visit to Yad Vashem, Prime Minister Renzi met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his residence.


Italian PM Renzi meets with PM Netanyahu
Copyright: Avi Dodi

Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statement at the start of his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi:
 
"Mr. Prime Minister,
 
Earlier today I met US Secretary of Defense, Ashton Carter. I told him that the deal with Iran poses grave threats to Israel and the Middle East, to Europe and the world. It will put Iran at the threshold of an entire nuclear arsenal within a decade, because at that time the deal permits Iran to build as many centrifuges as it wants and to enrich as much uranium as it wants, which means that Iran could break out in a decade or so to dozens of nuclear bombs in zero time.
 
And almost immediately, starting from this year, as the deal passes, the deal will give Iran hundreds of billions of dollars to bankroll its aggression in the region and its terrorism around the world. That's more money for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, more money for the Quds Force, for Hezbollah, for Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for the Libyan proxy terrorists of Iran, more money for the Shiite militias in Iraq, for the Houthis in Yemen.
 
This bad deal is a historic mistake.
 
Now, we're repeatedly told that no deal is better than a bad deal. Well, this is a bad deal. Yet today we are told that the whole world supports this bad deal. Well, that's just not true.
 
Israel and many Arab states oppose this deal. And in any case sometimes the entire world can be wrong. It was dead wrong on another nuclear deal – the one with North Korea. We were told then by the international community, the scientific community, the arms control community that that deal would prevent North Korea from getting nuclear weapons and it would make the world safer.
 
Well, we all know how that turned out."