BYE BYE GAZA - Barry Chamish

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Is there a timetable for Israel on this? It‟s going to be a
while before Palestinians move into this area, right?
The need to open up Gaza to outside investment, to
manufacturing, to a revived agriculture, all of that is
immediate, and is not dependant on moving [Palestinians]
into the area where settlements existed.
Is [former president of the World Bank] James
Wolfensohn, a special U.S. envoy on economic
questions, working on this problem too?
He is. He has an incredibly difficult job and is doing it as well
as anyone can. What he’s doing there, from my point of view,
is truly amazing.
What is he doing?
He has defined the issues and [determined] what Gaza
needs to succeed. He has personally helped raise public
money from governments and public institutions like the
World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the
European Union, and has [also] raised money from the
private sector. For example, he put together $14 million
dollars toward a much larger sum of money, most of which is
public money, for the purchase of the greenhouses­
­the greenhouses and the dairy.
Right. They were bought from the settlers so they could be
left in place and used by the Gaza Palestinians. And he
personally contributed half a million dollars toward the
purchase of those greenhouses. So he’s doing an
outstanding job. But in the end, it is the government of Israel
that has to agree to these arrangements.
And the second set of issues for Sharon?