Italian colonists in the Dodecanese the island of Rhodes. Approximately 40,000 Italian soldiers and sailors were on military duty in the Dodecanese islands in 1940. The appointment of Fascist quadrumvir Cesare Maria De Vecchi as governor of the Italian Aegean Islands in 1936 marked a turning point. De Vecchi promoted a more vigorous and forceful program of Italianization, which was only interrupted by Italy's entry in World War II in 1940. Indeed, he promoted the possible unification of the islands to Italy as part of the fascist ideal of an Imperial Italy. During World War II, Italy joined the Axis Powers, and used the Dodecanese
Greek island affair Greek island affair The Greek island affair (, "Parashat HaEe HaYevani") was an Israeli political scandal involving David Appel, Ariel Sharon, at the time a minister in the Likud party, and others close to Sharon. The scandal consisted of charges, later dropped, that Appel had obtained favourable treatment from Sharon and his allies, which would help him and his fellow investors purchase the small rocky island of Patroklos at the tip of Attica, in the town of Palaia Fokaia, for the purpose of building a multimillion-dollar resort complex. The project was illegally obstructed. While Ariel Sharon was Foreign Minister under