Israel's 'fantasy island' off Gaza's coast - Suhail Khalilieh

[King_David]

By Suhail Khalilieh


Israel's Channel 2 has revealed an Israeli government plan to set up an artificial "man-made" island off the coast of the Gaza Strip, to be under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

The plan, as reported, was formulated and schemed by the Israeli Minster of Transportation Yaakov Katz, guided and godfathered by Israeli Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu. Apparently, the idea has been formulated and detailed by a team of experts for quite some time -- three months according to the report.

The island is planned to sit some 4.5 kilometers from Gaza's shores, and to include Palestinian-operated sea and air ports, tourist accommodation areas, and a desalination plant. The dimensions of the island are drawn at four by two kilometers linked to mainland Gaza by a 4.5 kilometer bridge.

The projected budget for the Island project runs between $5-10 billion and will take somewhere between six and 10 years to execute.

The project, which is yet to receive final approval from Netanyahu, has wide support across the Israeli spectrum. Israeli President Shimon Peres alleged that the island would allow Israel to permanently secede from Gaza with no obligations to commercial trading whatsoever, while maintaining a coastal siege for security purposes including arm smuggling into Gaza. Furthermore, the island and the bridge to mainland Gaza will be subject to designated international supervision.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=379022

[kayecy]

1. Even long-suffering US Taxpayers might gib at picking up the tab for this one......n/t