 (AKI) - Italy will donate 100 million dollars to help rebuild the Gaza Strip after the recent devastating Israeli military offensive there, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi on Monday told an international conference on Gaza taking place in Egypt. Donors are expected to pledge over 3 billion dollars.
| If these suckers can come up with 3 billion dollars I have a few banks they might be interested in. I'll throw in a free toaster ... |
"I believe countries will vie with one another to make the biggest donations they can in order to rebuild Gaza as quickly as possible," Berlusconi said.
| Don't you have problems in your own country, Silvio? You've got refugees boating in to Lampedusa. You've got banks melting down. You've got unemployment -- when has Italy not had unemployment? You've got the Mafia that still owns most of Sicily and the south of your country. A 100 million dollars might not fix any of these problems, but it sure wouldn't hurt. And a 100 million won't fix Gaza, not now, not ever. |
"But we know this won't be enough. When the (future) Palestinian state has received sufficient pledges to ensure a revival of its economy, the entire world should follow through and swing behind it to ensure the Palestinian economy can prosper," Berlusconi added.
He called for all donor states to "strive together in an extra act of responsibility and generosity to do what we can."
"I do not believe there can be true peace and coexistence between two people who have standards of living that vary too greatly," he continued.
| Never asking, of course, just why it is that the Israelis live in a first-world country and the neighboring Gazooks live in a third-world shit-hole ... |
Berlusconi said the Italian government would like Gaza's airport to be rebuilt and for the Palestinian territories to become a future destination for tourists from the Christian and Islamic world.
| Great idea! I'd call it 'Medieval Times' but that name has already been taken. And besides it sounds too .. modern for Gaza ... |
Italy, as current president of the G8 group of the world's top economies plus Russia, is already talking to hoteliers, multinationals and budget airlines from all over the world about locating hotels and offices in Gaza and the Palestinian territories, Berlusconi stated.
| You could put 'em right next to the greenhouses ... |
Berlusconi said it should be possible to get a "a significant number" of the current 400 million European tourists to visit the biblical sites of the Holy Land.
The United Nations has forecast that tourists worldwide will increase by 50 percent over the next eight years from 800 million currently, Berlusconi noted.
| Just as soon as Bambi heals this little economic trouble we're having ... |
The proposed canal between the Dead Sea and Egypt's Red Sea to provide electricity and potable water to the Palestinian Authority, Israel and Jordan, which would also increase agricultural land in the region is "an important project," Berlusconi said.
| Eyup, honest to goodness potable water since the Red Sea is salt water and the Dead Sea is .. saltier water ... |
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