Now there really will be a Holy War
Australian technology investor Kevin Bermeister has had some hits and misses in his career.
He founded the popular file-sharing network Kazaa, built Australia's largest video game distributor and was an early investor in Skype.
Less successful ventures included the now-defunct Sega World theme park in Sydney and an offshoot of troubled PC-maker Packard Bell.
Now he has set his investment sights on Jerusalem. After buying a 185-room hotel and bidding on a troubled Jewish development in East Jerusalem that was about to be sold to a Palestinian billionaire, he has proposed his most ambitious - some say far-fetched - plan: Jerusalem 5800, a 30-year, $30 billion redevelopment blueprint to transform the ancient holy city into a sprawling international tourist hub.
The businessman, who is Jewish, envisions 50,000 new hotel rooms, a new international airport in the West Bank and an underground metro line running through the city's archaeologically rich terrain.
Bermeister, 52, told the Los Angeles Times that his privately led vision will succeed where government redevelopment plans have failed.
Q: Why so much interest in Jerusalem?
A: I've been coming here for seven or eight years, looking and scouting. We've identified a business opportunity. I think we can take advantage of it, provide a
