Two Faces of Gaza, Country for Sale

Here is a link to Amotz Asa El's column on the truth of Gaza in the Jerusalem Post. In it he says that the problem with Gaza has been a long standing one: " THE TRUTH about Gaza is that it won't pacify; it's a matter of tradition. The only town in the Holy Land that was foolish enough to resist Alexander the Great, Gaza is also the city that consciously and voluntarily voted by a landslide for a leadership that promised it war, and not just war, but a war that had to cost it as dearly as it just has, and deliver yet more of the destitution, humiliation and despair which already had long been Gaza's hallmark."

Another look comes from author and veteran war correspondent Eric Margolis who says forget about any future peace plans for the Middle East: " Israel's Gaza offensive is also likely to torpedo the current Saudi-sponsored peace plan, which had been backed by all members of the Arab League. The plan, now likely defunct, had called for Israel to withdraw to its 1967 borders and share Jerusalem in exchange for full recognition and normalised relations with the Muslim world.

Arab governments will now be unable to sell the deal as they face a storm of criticism from their own people over their powerlessness to help the Palestinians of Gaza. Egypt, in particular, is being widely accused of collaborating with Israel in further sealing off and isolating Gaza. It seems highly unlikely they will be able to advance a peace plan with Israel for now.

This is a bonus for right-wing Israelis, who have always been dead set against any withdrawal and strongly supported the attack on Gaza."

Attention Warren Buffet: Why look for an island to buy when you can have your very own Eastern European country, full of rich tradition and history? The global economic crisis has hit the smaller countries really hard, so hard that: " A Latvian citizen asked Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich to buy his country, APA reports.

The letter, posted by an unknown person on the petitonline.com website, reads, “As you may already know our homeland Latvia went bankrupt and is currently holding talks with the International Monetary Fund on the sale of our country for 7.5 billion euros ($10.7 billion)." The Latvian specified advantages of his country in the letter. "I would like you to consider the possibility of purchasing Latvia: the population is hard working and pleasant, environmentally clean area and plenty of space to dock your yacht," the letter said. Over 400 Latvian citizens signed the letter. Earlier in the year some 2,000 Latvian residents, the country has a population of around 2.3 million, posted a petition on the internet asking the government of Sweden "to occupy" their country. Latvia has experienced the worst economic decline in the European Union, with the country’s GDP declining for a third quarter this year by 4.6% against the same period last year. It is not the first fact of Internet-sale of the country. Recently a British citizen put Island on sale via eBay. The opening price of Island was 99 penny and grew to 10 million dollars at the end of sale."

I know of small towns in Oregon and California that were for sale, the attractive part of the deal was that they had their own postal zip code. I guess the attractive part with Latvia is that you could have a whole country designation on the internet. We have syndicates that pool their money together to buy sports teams, why not countries? What a great place for all of the Libertarians to resettle! Maybe we could rename them...I could call it Grumpistan...