I thought this was an impoverished people?

Egyptian merchants are doing their best to serve this brand new market. Shopkeeper Sayed says he was surprised when a 200-meter section of the Gaza border wall came down early Wednesday. Since then, he has sold more than $7,000 worth of merchandise from his store on Rafah's main street.
As thousands of Palestinians pour into Rafah, and Egyptians pour into the town to sell them everything from goats to motorcycles to cement, Egyptian security forces have moved into the town in force - sealing Rafah's outer borders to keep Palestinians from Gaza from leaving for other parts of Egypt.

VOA News - Palestinians Savor Open Gaza Border (http://voanews.com/english/2008-01-24-voa74.cfm)

There's plenty of money ;greenbacks included . The State Department noted in June 2007 that the United States was putting an additional $40 million into United Nations Relief and Works Agency emergency relief , after the $50 million we contributed earlier in the year. Note that this was AFTER the Palestinian Civil War and the takeover of Gaza by Hamas. This follows $84.5 million in 2006. International donors recently pledged $7.7 BILLION over three years to the Palestinians, of which percent would be spent in Gaza. This follows $1.2 BILLION spent on the territories in 2006.Plenty of money to buy guns and hummus.

The bigger question in my view is why was a huge wall erected between Gaza and Egypt ? Makes you think don't it ? Why doesn't Jimmy Carter write a book about this outrageous Egyptian Apartheid Wall ?I thought only Jews had them.


There were all these black outs that looked like California during the Enron days . Now we learn that the blackouts were staged ;just like the Enron days . Gaza Journalists: Hamas Faked Blackout Scenes - News Briefs - Arutz Sheva (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/140359)

But back to the point.. it appears that a mutually beneficial arrangement is being forged between the Gazans and Egypt. The shift of responsibility for the humanitarian needs of the Gazans to Egypt should be made permanent . And ;if it becomes to great a burden to Egypt then I'm sure the Saudis would be more than willing to invest in the people and place.

Where did the money come from? Hello DC:

From YOU. Well maybe not you cause you don't live here. But it came from ME - and tom, and probably you too.

excon

The Palestinians are significant receivers of charity from different Arab-Islamic charity groups such as Hezbollah and Hammas, and American mosques send charity money to the middle east. In addition, the Palestinian leadership gets millions from other governments. There aren't that many jobs for Palestinians, and they reproduce at a high rate. Many of them are subsidized.

I wonder if that has something to do with why they don't have their own state; as it is they are the charity poster child of the world while millions die of starvation in other African countries.

I'm all talked out about the Palestinians and most things Middle-Eastern...

I'm all talked out about the Palestinians and most things Middle-Eastern....
http://z.about.com/d/politicalhumor/1/0/E/O/propaganda_pledge.jpg