Controversy and Da Vinci join Berlusconi on visit to Holy Land

Thousands have been knighted in Italy, but when the Italians say "Il Cavaliere" - the knight - they mean Silvio Berlusconi. The "knight", who will be arriving in Israel next week, is a leader with his own unique style: extroverted and even extreme in some people's eyes. Italy has had more than 20 prime ministers since the Second World War, but both Berlusconi's opponents and supporters will agree - it's never been like this.

The prime minister is not only one of the richest people on Earth, and not just an unrivaled media mogul, but also, mainly, a one man show.

As far as he is concerned, quiet is abominable. There is almost never a day when Berlusconi, in his third term as prime minister, doesn't stir up a storm, an incident or mayhem. And even on the off chance that he does keep quiet, one of his close confidantes makes sure no one is bored.

One of the most hyped events involving Berlusconi was, of course, his attack in December in Milan, when a man hurled a sharp figurine at the Italian prime minister. However, in most of the cases, it is Berlusconi who is the instigator. He attacks the press for being biased, his opponents from the left and from the right, and especially the judges, whom he says are persecuting him.

Berlusconi has faced a long line of legal controversies, among them the allegation that he had bought the testimony of a British lawyer in a financial case. He can't seem to rid himself of these allegations, which eventually became legal charges. His attempt to legislate immunity for heads of state failed after the constitutional court intervened. This failure prompted Berlusconi to deal an unprecedented attack against the legal system in Italy. Under his system, it's him or them. Either the judges (whom he claims are politically biased) will bury his career, or he'll succeed in fundamentally changing the rules of the game and take away most of the vast power currently held by the legal system.

The lofty delegation, headed by Berlusconi and including ministers and moguls, will visit Israel for three days. The importance of the visit lies not only in its occurrence, but also in the business deals that may be struck. However, because of this important visit, another, equally important, event will not take place. The hearing on a rights dispute involving Berlusconi's media empire has already been scheduled, but diplomacy trumps everything, so the prime minister's lawyers convinced the courts to postpone the hearing until after the trip to Israel.

Are the controversies surrounding Berlusconi supposed to intimidate Israel? There is no doubt that the Italian prime minister is coming as friend, one of Israel's biggest supporters in Europe today. As such, he will be received with the utmost respect and reverence. When the Italian Sky network asked Israel's president about the corruption allegations surrounding Berlusconi, President Shimon Peres chose to distinguish between the "financial corruption" ("in this area he is innocent," Peres said, "as long as it is not proven otherwise") and "moral corruption." Peres explained that, as opposed to others, Berlusconi doesn't waver and takes a strong stance against terrorism, Iran and Hamas. Peres also stressed that Berlusconi was elected by a large majority. "The Italians are very nice people," Peres said, and it's hard to argue with that.

But the nice Italians have it backwards: the day to day politics, the dirt of the bog, comes before the lofty diplomacy. The latest example of this is Piero Marazzo, up until recently a rising star in the Italian left, who was forced into early retirement. Marazzo, 51, served as the President of Lazio, one of the twenty regions of Italy, from 2005 to 2009. Lazio, and its capital Rome, is one of the most important regions in the Italian balance of power. Marazzo himself was considered an important player in the fractured and divided left-wing opposition, which has failed to offer a worthy alternative to Berlusconi.

Besides being a promising politician, Marazzo also maintained a full fledged affection for sex with transsexual prostitutes. Until dirty cops burst into his apartment, where he was spending an evening with two of his friends, and filmed him, capturing in addition to the prostitutes what appeared to be cocaine on the coffee table. The tape was offered to several media outlets, among them a magazine run by Berlusconi's daughter, Marina. She told her father, and the chivalrous knight called Marazzo to inform him that he had seen the tape, and had rejected the offer to purchase it. Three days later, the existence of the tape was leaked to the press and Marazzo resigned and holed up in a monastery to cleanse. One of the prostitutes on the tape was later found dead. The incident is still under investigation.

In many ways, the case of Marazzo who was booted from the president's seat to the monastery is typical of the Italian political circus. Not because other politicians lead lives like his, but because it is symptomatic of a sick system where all the boundaries have been done away with. Not only the boundary between private and public, but also the boundary between voyeurism and criminal activity, and between journalism and extortion. The Italians, it seems, accept this outrageous affair with serenity, as another predetermined event, a necessity in the democratic game. As though it is only natural that lurking behind every politician is an extortion tape that could end his career.

Berlusconi's entourage on this trip includes a distinguished guest ? master artist Leonardo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519). Seven of Da Vinci's sketches have arrived in Israel ahead of Berlusconi. In many ways there is nothing new under the sun, Da Vinci was used to being a servant to nobility. He worked for the rulers of Milan and ended his life in France, as the guest of King Francois the first. One could wonder about whether it was wise to move such rare valuable works of art, sensitive in their nature, from Italy to Israel just to accompany a political visit. But the Italian curators have clearly taken all the possible precautions.

For the Israeli public, it will pose a rare opportunity to glimpse the handiwork of Da Vinci, which will be on display at the Knesset until Passover. The sketches are taken from the Codex Atlanticus, one of the artist's most important groups of works. They include waterway plans, sketches of a digging machine and even a device to roast meat. Unfortunately, sketches having to do with the human body, the subject that Da Vinci was most interested in, won't be coming to Israel.