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Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama is not only a head taller than the rest, his view from the top is clear. A surprisingly staunch ally in a mostly Muslim country, he insists that Albania stand almost alone in Europe in declaring openly: We love Israel. I can’t help but ask him why

He’s the one who’s hard to miss when he enters a room, and not just because of the entourage of bodyguards and assistants surrounding him as befits a head of state.  When you meet Albania’s prime minister Edi Rama face to face, you can’t help but crane your neck. At six foot seven inches, his towering height means he has to bend slightly when he passes through a doorway, but his eyes transmit something else:

Power.

Sharpness.

Intelligence.

Creativity.

In today’s political arena, in which Israel must struggle to explain its very survival, Rama is a rare phenomenon. Despite leading a country with a clear Muslim majority, he openly defends Israel’s right to protect itself, wears the hostages’ pin, and condemns Hamas in extremely harsh terms, calling them the “Nazis of the 21st century.”

Rama was in Israel last week — his second visit this year — despite some rather vocal pro-Hamas protesters in his own country, angry that their prime minister hasn’t bought into the “genocide” narrative, as he dared to blame Hamas for Gaza becoming an “open-air free prison” and stating that “The executioner is Hamas and no one else.”

I meet Rama at the end of a whirlwind day that included a visit to the Kosel, Yad Vashem, qa speech in the Knesset and a meeting at the prime minister’s office. To break the ice, I decide to pull a creative gambit. Edi Rama’s office in Tirana blends politics and art; as an artist who paints in oils and acrylic, this former art professor is known to sketch habitually during cabinet meetings and phone calls. I try my luck.