Berlusconi's Israel trip still on track, despite attack
Berlusconi: Speech to Israeli parliament to be one of the most important speeches in my life.
By Jonathan Lis Tags: Israel newsItalian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi will be coming to Israel and the Knesset on a state visit in about one month, despite an attack a few weeks ago that put him in the hospital with facial injuries. Not only did Berlusconi insist on going through with his trip to Israel, he will be bringing with him eight sketches by Leonardo da Vinci, to be put on display in the Knesset.
It is not known which sketches will be coming to Israel, but it is known that they are not on public display in Italy, but are kept in a vault in a museum in Milan.
The Italian government is going to bear to cost of insuring the artwork, which will come to hundreds of thousands of dollars per picture.
Visitors to the Knesset will be able to view the sketches on regular tours of the Knesset, or if they are invited to the parliament by an MK.
The works will be on display from February until just before Passover.
Berlusconi's early February visit to Israel had been in doubt following an attack on December 13 by a mentally ill man, who threw a figurine at Berlusconi during a rally, fracturing his nose and breaking his teeth.
He has hardly been seen in public since the attack and he canceled trips to Copenhagen and to Turkey he was to have made in the coming weeks.
Immediately after the incident, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin sent Berlusconi a telegram wishing him a speedy recovery.
A few days ago, the Knesset received a telegram from one of Berlusconi's advisers stating that the prime minster did not intend to miss his visit to the Israeli parliament. The adviser wrote that the visit is one of the highlights of his career," and he sees the speech he is to give to the Knesset plenum as the most important speech in his life along with the speech he gave to the U.S. Congress.
The Knesset House Committee is expected today to vote to permit Berlusconi to address the Knesset in Italian.
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Your type of commentary is the reason that the left in Italy will never come to power for the forseeable future. They have nothing to offer the Italian people except anti Berlusconi propaganda and communist promises of equality for all. Berlusconi on the other hand has given and will continue to give the Italian people the possability of a future with optimism.
Berlusconi represent at least the halh of the Italians, the same percentage that each leader represent in most of the democratic countries. He will come with a message of simpathy and to encourage " peace ".In his vision peace can be achieved not at any israeli cost.He knows also the need of RECIPROCITY. A lot of israelis love Italy and Berlusconi knows that, so BARUJ ABBA.
Yes, Berlusconi is indeed embarassing, but what have Italians got before him? The communist backed governement of Prodi did nothing else than endlessly multiply the taxes, and did not even succeed to cope with the trash emergency in Naples. At least Berlusconi cleaned Naples and performed very well with the disasterous earthquake of L'Aquila. More, his foreign policy is of loyalty and friendship to U.S.A. and Israel. This is sufficient to gain my vote again in the next elections.
Mr. Berlusconi is not an angel, yet he is the elected Prime Minister by a majority of the Italians, and more importantly he is a friend of Israel. He is therefore very welcome to the Knesset. If and when Italy votes a new person into office and that person is a friend of Israel, he will be welcome here too. Benvenutto Amico Berlusconi!
Anyone with the slightest degree of sanity will have recognised by now that Berlusconi is a complete embarrassment to the people of Italy and the EU. Remember, he has called himself the most persecuted man in history and the greatest leader in Italian history. The only reason why he is coming to Israel, I suspect, is another attempt to denounce the judiciary, the press, and everyone else who denounces his corrupt ways--everyone who disagrees with him is a communist or leftist in his language. This will be widely broadcast over his own media network in Italy, and this in turn, will feed his massive ego. I am sure he will play the Holocaust card for sympathy, but of course, he's never minded calling a fellow German MP a kapo and then claiming it was joke. And his public posturing and modelling of himself as a father of Italy who plays off ignorance and suspicion is all too reminiscent of another Italian embarrassment--Mussolini. What a role model for Knesset members.