But Italy is a small country

An Italian came to our room in Skypeland, and claimed that the US and Israel were greedy and selfish. This Italian said that Italy has far more generous immigration policies than the US and Israel and gave much more aid to the Palestinians than the US and Israel. He said that Israel did nothing good for Palestine, including assisting it with medical care.

However, the numbers show a different story. Italy does not appear to be as generous as the US or Israel when it comes to its immigration policy, or in aid to the Palestinians.

The Italian wanted to dispute the figures I gave him because he claimed Italy was so small. For comparison, Italy has a population of 59.1 million people: http://demo.istat.it/bilmens2006/index.html, while the US has a population of 300 million and Israel has a population of 7 million.

Number of Immigrants

Although Italy has a large number of immigrants, and has had many immigrants in recent years, it does not have as large a proportion of immigrants as the US and Israel, contrary to the claims of the Italian we met in Skypeland.

Italy has 0.8-2 million illegal immigrants and 3 million legal immigrants:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Italy, so that the Italian population contains 5.7-8.5% immigrants.

By comparison, the foreign-born portion of the US workforce is 11.7% from the US Census data:http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/p20-551.pdf. The US has about 37.5 million immigrants:http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070912/NEWS01/709120328/1002/rss0 although there are a huge number of illegal immigrants in the US as well; from 12.2 -20 million:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States
http://www.fairus.org/site/PageServer?pagename=iic_immigrationissuecentersb8ca
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_to_the_United_States#Illegal_immigration
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0516/p01s02-ussc.html
so the total number of immigrants in the US is not completely clear. However, by any measure, the US has proportionately more immigrants and more illegal immigrants by far than Italy.

Similarly, Israel has 3 million immigrants, constituting almost 50% of the population: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Immigration/Immigration_to_Israel.html dwarfing the fraction of immigrants in Italy.

Italian Acceptance of Immigrants

Contrary to the claims of the Italian, there are plenty of tensions in Italy about immigration:
http://www.radioproject.org/archive/2003/3203.html The laws in Italy have been recently changed to make it easier to deport immigrants, and an Italian politician even suggested that the Italian boats patrolling Italian waters use cannons to keep out the immigrants arriving by boat: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3009666.stm There have been mass deportations from Italy: http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/06/1096949594440.html?from=storylhs
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/english/200103/01/eng20010301_63733.html

Generosity to NonEuropean Immigrants

The fraction of nonEuropean immigrants in Italy is dwarfed by the figures in the US and Israel.

Italy has had a growing number of nonEuropean immigrants, reaching 1.2 million in 2000, or about
http://www-pub.naz.edu:9000/~cmnewell/history.htm but they still constitute only about 2 % of the population. This compares to the US, which is about 41% nonEuropean. Similarly, Israel is 29% of local origin, 4% from Americas, 30% from Asia and Africa, and 37% from Russia and Europe (15% from Europe) :
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/origingraph.html So Italy is far more European than either Israel or the US.

The US is very diverse compared to Italy. It has the following demographic breakdown:
European American 58.8% (nonHispanic)
Hispanic American 14.5%
Black American 12.1%
Asian American 4.3%
American Indian 0.8%
Hawaiian and Pacific Islander 0.1%
Other Races 6%
Mixed Race 1.9%
Jewish Americans 2.5%
Arab Americans 1.3%
Iranian Americans 0.1-0.2%http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Racial_groups (and related pages).

Once again, I find it astounding that someone from a country that is struggling to absorb a 2% nonEuropean population would criticize others from far more diverse countries for their generosity in accepting immigrants and even harboring racist attitudes. I do think the US and Israel definitely could do better than they do, however, it is a bit much to be criticized by someone from a country that is not doing near as much by any measure.

Palestinian Foreign Aid

The Palestinians are the largest per capita recipients of foreign aid in the world, having been given far more aid than the beneficiaries of the Marshall Plan:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/17/international/middleeast/17diplo.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=20&x_article=1285
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/palaid.html
http://www.usip.org/pubs/usipeace_briefings/2006/0810_aid_palestine.html
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2298

The US is currently providing 468 million dollars a year to Palestine (as of 2006), and the US just approved a new 48.5 million dollar water project there. In the last 15 years the US has given several billion dollars in aid to Palestine. This does not include indirect contributions through the UN of which the US is the largest donor, or the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund, which are funded in large measure by the US. The US has given substantial amounts to Palestine for years:
http://www.americantaskforce.org/usfactsheet.php
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DC1139F932A1575AC0A965958260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Organizations/W/World%20Bank
http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:oc-rIHdQwLsJ:vienna.usembassy.gov/en/download/pdf/aid_palest.pdf+US+aid+to+palestine&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us
http://www.usaid.gov/wbg/

Additional US private funds sent to Palestine are about 25% of the US government aid program totals:
http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rs22370.pdf

Israel supplies water, food and power to Palestine. For example:

Cabinet Announces Sanctions Against Gaza
14 Cheshvan 5768, 26 October 07 10:42 by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) Defense Minister Ehud Barak is set to approve, on Thursday afternoon, sanctions upon Palestinian Authority-controlled Gaza. The measures are in response to the renewed Kassam rocket fire from Gaza on Sderot and environs.Six Kassams were fired Wednesday night at the western Negev, sending two people into shock. These followed more than 20 fired on Tuesday, including one that hit a home, and preced another two rockets fired Thursday morning. A committee headed by Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai has recommended that electricity supplied by Israel be cut off to northern Gaza during certain evening and nighttime hours. The city of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, and environs, comprise the area from which most of the Kassam rockets are fired. The committee also recommends cutting down Israel's supply of fuel and goods to Gaza."We have no alternative other than to employ these measures," Deputy Minister Vilnai explained Thursday on Army Radio. "The situation cannot continue in which we supply the Palestinians with all their needs as usual while they fire at us. Gaza is a hostile entity, and this is a gradual disengagement."

Some 62.5 percent of Gaza's electricity, and all of Gaza's fuel, including diesel, gasoline and natural gas, comes from Israel. Another 28.6 percent of Gaza's electricity comes from Gaza's power plant, which depends on Israeli fuel. The remainder of the electricity comes from Egypt. The numbers were supplied by Stuart Shepherd of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Defense Minister Barak is also considering closing the Israel-Gaza crossings for an unlimited time.

Israel already disengaged from Gaza once before, when it destroyed 21 of its own Jewish communities there, expelled their residents, and razed their homes in an effort to increase security for the Jewish State. It was said at the time that Israel had no need to be at all involved with Gaza and the Arab population there. However, ties between Israel and Gaza have continued even without an Israeli presence in Gaza, prompting the nearly 9,000 still temporarily-housed ex-Gazan Jews to wonder what purpose was served by the destruction of much of their lives.
Alon Davidi, of the Sderot Task Force, said after Wednesday night's Kassam attacks, "It is inconceivable that the residents of Sderot should be abandoned by their democratic government, and are deprived of their basic right to live with security and without fear. We call upon the Prime Minister to wake up from his dreams of concessions, and order the IDF to set out on a broad ground campaign to stop the terrorism in Hamastan."

Former IDF Chief of Staff Moshe Yaalon maintains, in a paper he prepared for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, that one of the reasons Israel is not invading Gaza is its fear that the PA will hold off on supplying Israel with gas from an off shore gas field discovered by Israel in 2000. The field, with an estimated worth of $4 billion of gas, was given as a gift by then-Prime Minister Barak to the PA, which is developing it together with British Gas. Ex-Prime Minister Sharon opposed the deal, fearing that revenues would be used to fund terrorism, but Prime Minister Olmert apparently plans to go ahead with it.
www.IsraelNationalNews.com
© Copyright IsraelNationalNews.com



Italy's Berlusconi called for a "Marshall Plan for Palestine" in 2001:
http://www.jewishsf.com/content/2-0-/module/displaystory/story_id/17183/edition_id/339/format/html/displaystory.html According to the Palestine Monitor in 2007, Italy donates 27 million dollars per year to Palestine:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_aid_to_Palestinians. This is proportionately far less than the US provides to Palestine. On a per capita basis, the US gives about 3.5 times more aid to Palestine than Italy does, according to the most recent figures.

The European Union has been as critical of the Palestinian leadership as the US and Israel has, similarly threatening to withhold aid on occasion:
http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/432.shtml Italy has even taken the lead on these issues on occasion: http://www.1stjordan.net/actuuk/archivesuk/resultat.php?id=1235&debut=0 This is completely contrary to the claims of the Italian who visited us in Skypeland.

Italy's "Small" Size

When confronted with the numbers, even adjusted for Italy's "small" size, the Italian said over and over that the numbers did not count since Italy is a much smaller country. I said that the figures I was giving were per capita. He waited a few minutes, and then brought up the same objection that the numbers do not count since Italy is "small". I told him again that I was giving per capita numbers, adjusting for Italy's small size. Then he would a few minutes later, bring up Italy's "small" size again, saying that the numbers were unfair. He did this over and over, always saying that he understood, and then bringing up the same issue a few minutes later as though he had never heard the previous explanations. (Wow, he just does not seem to understand, does he?)

Further Lack of Information

The Italian said that Israel and the US were unfair to the Palestinian terrorists. He was asked about the Italian Red Cross workers that were abducated in Palestine in 2006 sparking outrage in Italy: http://www.icrc.org/web/eng/siteeng0.nsf/html/palestine-delegate-news-211106
http://justifythis.blogspot.com/2006/11/kidnapping-aid-workers-for-allah.html. Amazingly, he had never heard of this.

Even stranger, while discussing the Italian Red Cross workers that had been kidnapped in Palestine, the Italian claimed he had not heard of the Italian Red Cross, or even the Red Cross. This is amazing considering that Italy has one of the world's oldest Red Cross Societies, dating back to 1863 or 1864, and its Red Cross organization is one of the founders of the International Red Cross. Italian Red Cross ambulances are prominent in Italy with their own special license plates:
http://targheitaliane.it/index.html?/italy/speciali/cri.html and run volunteer blood drives, etc. This just staggers belief. Wow.

What they did with the aid

Here is a recent report about the content of Palestinian schoolbooks containing material encouraging terrorism:
http://www.pmw.org.il/BookReport_Eng.pdf
It is very discouraging to see what the aid from around the world is funding.

In thanks for US aid, here is a recent cartoon from a Palestinian official government newspaper encouraging the death of Americans:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/123872

Upshot

As we presented this material to the Italian, he became more and more distraught. He did not want to hear the data. He became upset when we would not accept his wild accusations and contentious claims without question, and left in a huff. Oh well....

As I analyzed more and more of this Italian's statements, I found they had less and less substance. Often, people with some of the most negative attitudes and worst complaints turn out to have almost no information to back them up.