$5 bn Offshore Island mooted for Gaza ports

Huh? Now who is being pushed into the sea?

The Israeli Transportation Ministry is working on a plan to build an artificial island off the coast of Gaza, where a Palestinian-run airport and seaport would eventually be located. Ministry spokesman Ilan Leizerovich told the Associated Press that this would allow Israel to cut all ties with Hamas-ruled Gaza.

The majority of consumer goods and people who are allowed to enter and exit Gaza utilize Israeli land crossings. "Full disengagement" would follow this fanciful plan, and within six years the demilitarized zone of this island would be patrolled by international forces.

Leizerovich said the island would be built about three miles (4.5 kilometers) off the Gaza coast and would be connected by a bridge. He said it would take about six years and cost more than $5 billion to build. The grandiose scheme would need additional government approval, Palestinian acceptance and funding.

They'll also need a bridging loan, I guess. And few people reckon on a Dubai-style high style man-made island like the rather sci-fi one pictured above. According to the news station that broke the story, Channel 2, Israel would control and oversee all construction - to prevent concrete and other materials to be appropriated for covert rocket launchers. (The state of the art short range rocket shield, the Iron Dome, was deployed today for the first time over Beersheba.) Official discussions about the possibility of annexing West Bank settlements into Israel also created controversy.