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Page added on August 3, 2014
Palestinian Conflict; The Natural Gas Twist
The International media today is extremely busy in trying to depict the assault on Ghaza as a war that is justified and rightful. With over 500 unarmed civilian casualties incurred in just a few days, and that too, of mostly women and children; this is not a war, it’s not a conflict; its systematic genocide of the Palestinian people by the racist Zionist land grabbers.
The current assault; Operation Protective Edge, to carry out ethnic cleansing, was launched under the pretext of terrorist activities being carried out by Hamas in Israel. At the face of it, the triggering event for this assault was the kidnapping and shooting of three Israeli hitchhikers near Hebron. Hamas was immediately blamed, Palestinians were held responsible since they are ‘harboring’ Hamas ‘terrorists’.
To seek vengeance, the Jewish Israelis started carrying out violent physical attacks against the Palestinians living in Israel; two such acts that made the headlines were the abduction and immolation of a 16-year old child by outraged Israeli locals and the brutal battering of a 15 year old Palestinian American boy in Jerusalem by Israeli police. Thus finding a justification and further capitalizing on the outrage and hatred of its local population, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, issued the orders for deadly airstrikes followed by ground assault to “root out Hamas ‘terrorists” with prejudice.
It’s apparent that Israel has quickly learned from the debacle of 2006 invasion of Lebanon, where it faced not only military but political and diplomatic disaster as well, if subsequent result of operations (Operation Cast Lead-Dec 2008, and Operation Pillar of Defense – Nov 2012 and Operation Protective Edge – July 2014) against Ghaza, are taken into consideration. Straight after 2006 war with Lebanon, a new “National Information Directorate” was established within the Prime Minister’s Office, charged with synchronization of content and tone of Israel’s message across many organizations that carry it to the world, whether official or unofficial. The result; as soon as the Operations commenced, a tide of diplomats, lobby groups, bloggers and other supporters were unleashed to hammer home a handful of carefully crafted core messages intended to ensure that Israel is seen as the victim. The success of this directorate is clearly evident from the stance which major news conglomerates of the West; CNN, Fox News, BBC, CNBC etc, haven taken.
On the diplomatic front; it’s an open secret that Israel and America are bed fellows, whose union has not only given birth to but meticulously parented and positioned the UN into their interest protecting one eyed organization. Protection of Israel’s interests is at the heart of every policy churned out by Washington. Washington’s unconditional support to Israel, its battleship/air craft carrier in the Mediterranean, army bases in the Middle East and its covert assets deployed are sufficient to render all the regions Muslim states harmless, who are trying to cover their inaction by giving an excellent lip service.
Therefore, any ‘wild’ speculations across the ‘Arab street’, a handy metaphor to describe popular opinion in the Arab Muslim world, that the triggering event was actually an Israeli False flag, and that analysts believe the evidences found for the attack and murder of the three Israelis actually point to the 10,000 strong Qawasmeh tribe in the Hebron region, which is known historically and openly antagonize Hamas and Israeli settlers, is going to fall on deaf ears.
A little history check; The concept of a “Greater Israel” according to the founding father of Zionism, Theodore Herzl, is a Jewish state stretching, “From the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates”, translation; from river Nile in Egypt to River Euphrates in Iraq. Rabbi Fischmann, of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, stated to the UN special committee on 9th July 1947; “The Promised Land extends from the River of Egypt up to the Euphrates; it includes parts of Syria and Lebanon’. The Map illustrates the lands that come under the Jewish Promised land within the red line.
The wheels of making the ideology of “Greater Israel” have been in motion since long, and we are already seeing it achieving significant milestones in the Middle East, but apart from this; Israel has a more pressing concern;Energy. As Dr. Gary Luft – an advisor to the US Energy Security Council – wrote in the “Journal of Energy Security, “with the depletion of Israel’s domestic gas supplies accelerating, and without an imminent rise in Egyptian gas imports, Israel could face a power crisis in the next few years. If Israel is to continue to pursue its natural gas plans it must diversify its supply sources”. Israel currently relies on gas from Egypt; and is seeking aggressively to reduce this dependence on Egyptian gas since it’s vulnerable to interruptions. In addition, with an estimate that Israel’s gas reserves are likely to last even less than 40 years, has had the alarm bells ringing with the Zionist states’ decision makers.
In the year 2000, 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas was discovered off Gaza coast; Gaza Marine Gas; valued at $4 billion, in addition, it is expected to generate substantial revenues of around $2.4 billion in royalties and taxes, and save $560 million annually by eliminating the need to import electricity from Israel. Furthermore, diesels imports from Israel would be replaced by locally generated natural gas. The Gaza Marine Gas project, therefore, would have delivered the Palestinians economically and financially.
On the other hand, Israel has made successive major discoveries in recent years – such as the Leviathan field estimated at 18 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – which have the potential to transform the country from an energy importer into an aspiring energy exporter with objectives to supply Europe, Jordan and Egypt. The hurdle; much of the 122 trillion cubic feet of gas and 1.6 billion barrels of oil in the Levant Basin Province lie in the territorial waters that are hotly contested between Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and Gaza. This makes the Leviathan field a long term project and a very expensive one to develop which won’t be able to begin production till 2020.
The development of Gaza Marine Gas project has been hurdled at every step. Despite US and UK trying to supplement talks between Israel and Palestinian Authority (PA), it has mainly been fruitless and has resulted in a quagmire between Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. Hamas has been the main opposition to the deal negotiations between Israel and PA, since Hamas is the government of Gaza; not much has materialized. Hamas has strongly contested deals brokered by international powers between Israel and PA that it believed to be unfair to the Palestinian people. This led the Palestinian Authority to looks elsewhere for the development of the project. In January, the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and an official investment agreement was concluded to develop Gaza’s offshore gas field in the Mediterranean Sea. This logically raised more than just an eyebrow with not only Israel but the western Powers as well.
According to Anais Antreasyan in the University of California’s Journal of Palestine Studies, Israel’s long term goal, apart from not only making Palestinian access to Gaza Marine field impossible, is also averting the Palestinians from exploiting their own resources, is to integrate the gas fields off Gaza into adjacent Israeli offshore installations; which is part of a wider strategy of “…. Separating Palestinians from their land and natural resources in order to exploit them and as a consequence, block Palestinian economic development. Despite all formal agreements to the contrary, Israel continues to manage all the natural resources nominally under the jurisdiction of the PA, from land and water to maritime and hydrocarbon resources.” This explains that during “Operation Cast Lead”, Palestinian gas fields were de facto confiscated by Israel in derogation of International Law.
Despite whatever hue and cry from the Palestinian sympathizers and supporters around the world, be they from any religion, cast or creed, this assault will not stop until Israel has achieved its objectives or is thwarted comprehensively. It may stop temporarily under international pressure; but as is evident from the past, every ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians is short lived; the assault will start again with a different strategy, and under a different pretext, but with brute force.
Israel’s long and short term goals are no secret to the world. Its perusal to the ideology of Greater Israel, regional/global supremacy, control of the world wealth and resources spells disaster for the Muslim Ummah. The Prophet (PBUH) rightly foretold of the Great War between the Muslims and the Jews; it’s an inevitable occurrence. Therefore, as I have been advocating in all my previous articles; the unity of Muslim Ummah is absolutely essential for its survival. As a Muslim Ummah, leaving all our differences, personal grudges behind, we must work towards a united front against the present and imminent threats, a major one being the nefarious designs of Zionists. The Palestinian people are calling out to us, they need our help, and if we continue to bicker among ourselves, our turn will soon come. Martin Luther put it best, ‘In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends’. The age of continuous conflict is upon us; and Muslims are on the menu.
14 Comments on "Palestinian Conflict; The Natural Gas Twist"
Plantagenet on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 4:48 pm
These nutty islamist and anti-semitic rants just serve to discredit the Palestinian cause. The claim that Muslim wars against Israel are justified because Muhammad fought wars against jews 1400 years ago is just ridiculous.
bobinget on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:26 pm
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — “Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip on Sunday in an apparent winding down of the nearly monthlong operation against Hamas that has left more than 1,800 Palestinians and 60 Israelis dead.
Even as Israel said it was close to completing its mission, heavy fighting raged in parts of Gaza, with at least 10 people killed in what U.N. and Palestinian officials said was an Israeli airstrike near a U.N. shelter. The United States lashed out at Israel, saying it was “appalled” by the “disgraceful” attack.
And with Hamas officials vowing to continue their fight, it remained uncertain whether Israel could unilaterally end the war”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/03/israel-withdraws-troops-gaza_n_5645981.html
Posted note: Israel prepares for real war. This one far more challenging… Against a disciplined, well armed, as yet undefeated fighting force.
Posted note:
While everyone’s attention is riveted of the Gaza tragedy, a much greater disaster is going down.
“In Syria, a country ripped apart by war for more than three years, the situation on the ground looks bleaker every day. Last week, as the world followed the conflict in Gaza and Israel, more than 1,700 people were killed in the country. It was one of Syria’s bloodiest weeks yet, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights”.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/01/syrian-civil-war_n_5635618.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Posted note:
Did WW/3 start with radical Muslim ISIS combat troops capturing a large part of Syrian and Iraqi territory and
this “Islamic State” capturing yet another oil field, this one Kurdish?
IMO, WW/3 is in progress and no one told the American people.
Plantagenet on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:32 pm
The small conflicts in Israel, Syria, Iraq and Libya—horrific as they are—hardly amount to WWIII. Similarly, the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t WWIII.
Its all stupid and unnecessary, but its not WWIII.
bobinget on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 5:33 pm
“Everyone home by Christmas” (my headline)
ARSAL, Lebanon: The Lebanese Army is gearing up to finish the battle against militants in the northeastern town of Arsal in the next 48 hours after two days of fierce clashes killed 11 soldiers and 40 gunmen, security sources said Sunday.
“The Army has decided to finish the battle [in Arsal] within the next 48 hours,” a security source told The Daily Star.
The source said Hezbollah, which is trying along with the Syrian army to root out Syrian rebels from the Qalamoun region near the border, has decided not to intervene in the Arsal fighting in order “to prevent matters taking a [sectarian] turn.”
At least 11 Lebanese soldiers were killed and 15 taken hostage in the weekend battles between the Army and Islamist militants in and around Arsal, in the most serious spillover of violence from the war in Syria.
The fighting in Arsal, located near the border with Syria, in which at least 40 militants, mostly from Syria’s Al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, were also killed, heightened fears Lebanon could be dragged further into the Syrian war with all the dire consequences this entailed on the country’s fragile security and stability.
The government confirmed that the Army’s campaign against militants in Arsal would continue.
As the fighting raged on at midnight Sunday, the Army recovered some of its posts on Arsal’s outskirts captured by militants.
“Army units continue their military operations in Arsal and its surroundings, where they were able to expel the gunmen from the Arsal vocational building who tried to take it over,” the Army said in a statement.
In response to calls by the Tripoli-based Muslim Ulema Committee for an immediate halt to the fighting in Arsal, the Army Command demanded that all missing soldiers be handed over first before agreeing to any truce.
The fighting led thousands of Arsal’s residents to flee to safer areas.
Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Lebanon-News/2014/Aug-04/265976-army-vows-to-finish-arsal-battle-in-48-hours.ashx#ixzz39N3xZWEf
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)
bobinget on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 6:10 pm
Plant, who knows better then most, is making a quite reasonable observation of a most unreasonable situation.
Here’s a test Plantagenet. What do the following conflicts hold in common?
Syria/Iraq/Iran/Libya/Saudi Arabia/Russia/US/Yemen/
Nigeria/Egypt/Pakistan/Sudan/Ukraine/Gaza/Israel
I’ll posit participants are on several continents.
When nations this widely dispersed are in conflict one
can say this is a ‘Global Conflict’ i.e.: WW/3
Plant and an overwhelming majority will disagree of course.
During the period (I1950/1973) few would deny the US/USSR/NATO/ Warsaw Pact were in a so called “Cold War”.
In time Plant and the majority will admit this war we are now deeply involved in started in Syria, rooted in a so called ‘Arab Spring’, advantaged by militant Islam and fed by the darkest of human need for revenge.
The ‘Cold War’ was basically about economics, Capitalism vs Communism. Yet, the US lost 50,000
in Vietnam, 36,000 in Korea. If a cause as exciting as economics can kill this many Americans, ten times as many Koreans, Vietnamese, how many will victims will a fake religious oil war come to.
Events are moving too quickly to make predictions,
I’ve made conjectures. Today, I’m setting out facts.
Keith_McClary on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 6:16 pm
Plant-
“These nutty islamist and anti-semitic rants just serve to discredit the Palestinian cause. The claim that Muslim wars against Israel are justified because Muhammad fought wars against jews 1400 years ago is just ridiculous.”
The whole justification for Israel is that Dog ordered His Chosen People to exterminate the natives and colonize the place thousands of years ago.
That, and “might is right” and a (non binding) UNGA resolution.
Boat on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 6:59 pm
The US should show it’s solitary with Israel and send an icbm missile from the area of every missile fired at Israel.
eugene on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 9:20 pm
Israel has been focused on genocide from the very beginning. The US has an extensive history of the same thing.
farmlad on Sun, 3rd Aug 2014 10:20 pm
So God promised this land from the Nile to the Euphrates to the descendants of Jacob/Israel. Now in the 8th century BC the Assyrians conquered and systematically dispersed the majority of the 10 northern tribes throughout there empire, leaving only the 2 southern tribes under Hezekiah, and a pile of refugees from the northern tribes.
In the 6th century BC the Babylonians took captive to Babylon the majority of the remaining Israelis. Some of them returned again according to the decree of Cyrus the Great.
I tend to think that under Christian Rule a significant percentage of the decendants of those that had returned from Babylon and the few that had never gone to Babylon would have converted to Christianity and with time lost there Israeli identity.
Under Muslim rule I imagine the majority of the genetic Israelis whether Christian, heathen, Atheist, or Torah Followers, converted to The Muslim religion.
So when the Jews from Europe wanted a place for a Jewish State with some leveraging and fighting tooth and nail they got their State.
So I venture to say that the situation we are observing today is; the population of the middle east with say 15% Israeli Genes, Palestinians with 40% Israeli genes, and the People of the Jewish State with 35% Israeli genes.
So if you look at it this way the Israelis just might have inherited the whole middle east, but they are just having a lot of civil wars.
Now just don’t say any of this to the face of an ISIS, Hamas, or a Jew unless you want to risk getting torn up.
Tiny Radioactive Tree on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 1:38 am
Has noone noticed that this post is about gas?
Arthur on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 3:10 am
“On the diplomatic front; it’s an open secret that Israel and America are bed fellows, whose union has not only given birth to but meticulously parented and positioned the UN into their interest protecting one eyed organization. Protection of Israel’s interests is at the heart of every policy churned out by Washington. ”
Wow, these black Sudanese muslim types start to talk like David Duke. But they fail to go the last mile and explain to us WHY Israel is so important to the US.. Answer: because Israel owns the US.
Like Edward Snowden, David Duke is one of the first American political refugees and has settled in Austria, where else.lol Many more will follow when the globalist owners of the US will intensify the process of bolshevation/jacobinisation/centralization of the US and attempt to abolish the Constitution and turn it into the next USSR, a process initiated by 9/11 and supported by the import of a third world proletariate, that could not care less about civil liberties and the Constitution. Many thousands fled Russia after the revolution, won’t be different with the US. And just like many of these 1917 Russian emigrees fled to America or Europe, this time American political refugees will flee to Europe/Russia, like Duke and Snowden.
Bob Owens on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 5:18 pm
There is no country on Earth that can suffer hundreds of rockets being fired at it and not retaliate. The logic is simple and undeniable. Hamas is the instigator of this war. Instead of helping its people it uses the supplies it gets to build war machines and tunnels. Egypt made the correct decision to make peace with Israel decades ago. When will the rest of the Middle East stop with its hatred?
synapsid on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 5:49 pm
David Duke? Wow.
Is that the same David Duke who used to be Grand Wizard of the KKK?
Arthur on Mon, 4th Aug 2014 6:09 pm
“There is no country on Earth that can suffer hundreds of rockets being fired at it and not retaliate. The logic is simple and undeniable.”
Since 2001 the shooting with these firecrackers began and 28 Israelis got killed since, that’s two per year, yawn. In Holland every year 650 people die in traffic. Since 2001 many thousands of Palestinians have been killed. In 1948 the Palestinians were kicked of their land, because of some shady deal with Britain. These Palestinians don’t accept that, would you?