Israel to lavish Nauru, Micronesia leaders

[Scurrilous]

Presidents Stephen, Mori to meet top Israeli officials, including Netanyahu and Lieberman, then relax at Dead Sea spa

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3837275,00.html

<snip>

"The presidents of Micronesia and Nauru, countries with a combined total of 130,000 people, are expected to visit Israel Thursday, and the Foreign Ministry is going out of its way to make the visit a success, Ynet reported on Wednesday.

Officials from the Foreign Ministry, the President's Residence and the American Jewish Committee, which initiated the visit, have scheduled a series of meetings for Micronesia's Emanuel Mori and Nauru President Marcus Stephen with Israel's senior-most officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and President Shimon Peres.

The presidents are due to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, as well as holy Christian sites in Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee area. During their stay the leaders of the will be briefed on the Hamas threat in Gaza and the security situation along Israel's northern border.

Mori and Stephen, whose countries regularly back Israel at the United Nations, will also tour Masada and later unwind at a Dead Sea spa."

[derby378]

1. Poor Nauru - it needs all the help it can get

http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?episode=253

[Violet_Crumble]

3. Yes. I hope Israel gives it heaps of money to vote for it in the UN...

;)

[shaayecanaan]

5. They had heaps of money...

in fact they had a over billion dollars in royalties from phosphate mining. Unfortunately, banana republic is as banana republic does and it all got pissed away. Consider that there are only 9000 people on the entire island and you wonder exactly how incompetent these people have to be in order to screw themselves over as well as they do.

Nauru has recognised Abkhazia and South Ossetia in exchange for $50,000,000 USD from Russia. They have indicated that they would be willing to recognise Transnistria, Nagorno-Karabakh and other de facto republics for similar amounts.

You could call it "recognition for hire" so to speak. I hope that Israel does pay them a lot of money, but I dont expect that will change anything fundamentally.

[Violet_Crumble]

6. They also did pretty well out of the detention centre...

I remember reading an article about how some guy in Nauru was upset coz he was losing his lucrative job at the detention centre and I felt nothing in the way of sympathy for Nauru, considering how eager they were to play a role in the 'Pacific solution' and were John Howard's henchmen for so long...

[Violet_Crumble]

2. Aren't these the same countries Israel was complaining about getting special treatment from Iran?

Not sure, but if they are, it's going to be a cash cow for a few very small and unimportant Pacific islands!

[Scurrilous]

4. Report: Iran 'bought' Solomon Island vote against Israel (Nov-22-09)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=124&topic_id=294221

[Violet_Crumble]

7. That's the one I was thinking of. Thanks for posting that thread n/t