Goodness Curt, what are you talking about? It's the Palestinians that are shut off from the rest of the world, not Israel. There isn't a single country that has supported the anti-semites' demands that Israel be sanctioned. Not one. Only those countries that have been doing so since 1948, and those are just poor Arab countries where the people don't have any say in what the government does. And there isn't a single country that doesn't support the blockade of Gaza, including other Arab Muslim countries such as Egypt.

You people are living in a fantasy. Israel is doing very well, maintains good relations with most of the world, and is stronger than ever. While the Palestinians starve. BradtheDad is right. People have entirely stopped caring about the Palestinians. They feel sorry for them, but everyone realizes that their problems are entirely of their own making. People have other things to worry about. Obama is making noises in an effort to distract the Muslim world's attention from America's war crimes and genocide in Iraq, but it's just talk. He knows perfectly well that supporting the Palestinians would be political suicide.

Politicians like Obama are horse-traders. They may talk nice, but if you want them to do something, you have to give them something in return. And the Palestinians don't have anything at all to offer. They have no money, no support, no allies, no nothing. So they're entirely out of options at this point. Better relations with the Muslim world? Nope, Iraq and Afghanistan have made that impossible for some decades to come. All they can offer is recognition of and peace with Israel, and they foolishly won't do that. So they're done.

When are you going to get it through your thick skull that the situation in Gaza is a direct result of deliberate policies of both the Israeli AND the US governments? Is that reality too complex for you to grasp? Or is it simply impossible for you to set aside your proud prejudices in order to acknowledge the truth?

You're damn right that American Jews invested in Gaza and they were led by the most honorable one of them all, James Wolfenson who contributed $500,000.

Thanks for reminding me; it caused me to search for this old interview in Haaretz in which he sadly lays out what happened to the post-disengagement Gaza.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884018.html

Here's a short version; after Sharon fell into a coma, the Olmert govt and the bushies led by Elliot Abrams conspired to completely undo all the agreements made in regards to sustainable economic development for Gaza and shut Wolfenson out.

Sharon and Wolfenson had developed a warm working partnership.

In another post-disengagement account of the reality on the ground in Gaza published by the rightwing World Net Daily, the truth is exposed by non other than the settlers who were displaced:

JERUSALEM – After months of intense negotiations recently culminating in a deal allowing for the transfer of Gaza's high-tech Jewish greenhouses to the Palestinians, several former Jewish residents who briefly returned to their farms told WND they were shocked to find most of their produce has died because Israel turned off the water in the area.

"I couldn't believe it. Almost all of my crops are dead, and the rest is dying," Anita Tucker, one of the pioneer farmers of Jewish Gaza told WND. "I hope the Palestinians aren't expecting fresh produce. ... A fortune in crops is now all gone."

The greenhouse deal, reached just days before the Gaza evacuation, sold the area hot houses for about $14 million to the Economic Cooperation Foundation, an international fund which in turn will transfer the structures to the Palestinians.

The foundation consists mostly of private capital, including a personal $500,000 donation by James Wolfensohn, the former World Bank president who is a special Middle East envoy for the "quartet" of the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

About one-quarter of Gaza's Jewish greenhouses were previously dismantled and moved to new communities in Israel by their owners. The foundation deal reportedly covers the majority of the remaining hothouses.

The first payment to the former farmers of Jewish Gaza was transferred this weekend to a committee working on their behalf. A final payment will be made later this month, a member of the greenhouse negotiating team told WND.

PalTrade, a Palestinian company set up to export products from the greenhouses after they are transferred, has signed its first shipping contract for the produce slated to be grown there.

But several Jewish Gaza refugees who were allowed to briefly return to their hothouses said most of the produce currently inside is now dead.

Tucker, who owns large structures, said her hothouses were set to be watered by automatic irrigation systems.

"The sprinkler systems didn't work because Israel stupidly turned off the water after the Gaza withdrawal," said Tucker. "All my work, down the drain."

A former resident of Jewish Gaza's Ganei Tal farming
community who asked his name be withheld said, "Most of the greenhouses in Ganei Tal are dried up. This better not effect our payment because it's not our fault Israel turned off the water."
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46011

Come on Brad. Let's see you blame all of this shit on Hamas.