Israel Steals Gaza’s Offshore Natural Gas | PopularResistance.Org
All of the details of this global 'deal' sacrificing Gazans, with
some solid sourcing, via Eman Qasim: "The Middle East Monitor reported
September 4, 2014 that a Memorandum of Understanding ”is due to be
signed between Israel and Jordan in the reservoir of Leviathan to export
Israeli natural gas to Jordan during the next 15 years with a total
value of $15 billion”. (Jordan to buy $15bn of Israeli gas, Middle East
Monitor, September 4, 2014.)
Israel’s first natural gas export deal
will also be signed by “the Leviathan field partner Noble Energy Inc. on
behalf of itself and its partners Delek Group Ltd. units Avner Oil and
Gas LP and Delek Drilling Limited Partnership and Ratio Oil Exploration
(1992) LP.” (Leviathan partners signing $15b Jordanian gas deal, Globes,
Israel business news, on September 3, 2014)
We may recall that
in the wake of the Israeli bombing and invasion under Operation Cast
Lead, “Palestinian gas fields were de facto confiscated by Israel in
derogation of international law”:
A year following “Operation
Cast Lead”, Tel Aviv announced the discovery of the Leviathan natural
gas field in the Eastern Mediterranean “off the coast of Israel.”
At the time the gas field was: “ … the most prominent field ever found
in the sub-explored area of the Levantine Basin, which covers about
83,000 square kilometres of the eastern Mediterranean region.”
Coupled with Tamar field, in the same location, discovered in 2009, the
prospects are for an energy bonanza for Israel, for Houston, Texas based
Noble Energy and partners Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration and
Ratio Oil Exploration. (Felicity Arbuthnot, Israel: Gas, Oil and Trouble
in the Levant, Global Research, December 30, 2013)
The Gazan gas
fields are part of the broader Levant assessment area. (Michel
Chossudovsky, War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s
Offshore Gas Fields, Global Research, January 8, 2009)
The Times
of Israel said this first export deal “makes Israel chief energy
supplier for [the] kingdom.” (Marissa Newman, Israel signs $15 billion
gas deal with Jordan, The Times of Israel, September 3, 2014)
The
Israeli business news outlet Globe reports that the U.S. State
Department “assisted” both countries in signing the deal which gives
Israel the capacity to “use its position to achieve strategic aims”:
The deal has been brought to fruition with the assistance of Israel
Minister of Natural Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Silvan
Shalom and the US State Department.
US Secretary of State John
Kerry’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs
Amos Hochstein is in Jordan for the signing ceremony. Silvan Shalom will
be required to approve the deal before contracts are finally signed.
This deal significantly changes the economic strategic relations
between Israel and Jordan and makes Israel an energy producer and
exporter that can use its position to achieve strategic aims.
Discussions over Israeli gas exports have rumbled on in Israel for the
past few years and ultimately it was decided that Israel can export 40%
of its offshore natural gas reserves. (Leviathan partners signing $15b
Jordanian gas deal, Globes, Israel business news, on September 3, 2014)
According to the Middle East Monitor, Jordan approved last month a
recommendation “calling for supplying Jordan with natural gas from
Palestinian water of the Gaza Marine”:
“The Jordanian cabinet
approved, last month, the recommendation of the Committee on Economic
Development, calling for supplying Jordan with natural gas from the gas
field discovered in the Palestinian water of the Gaza Marine, after
coordination with the Palestinian Authority.
The Palestinians own
a stake in the Gaza Marine field, located 35 kilometres away from the
coast of the Gaza Strip, which was discovered at the end of the 90s,
nothing has been extracted from it yet.” (Middle East Monitor, op. cit.)
Will this deal between Israel and Jordan jeopardize this approval?
One thing is certain, this new deal making Israel the “chief energy
supplier for the kingdom” and making Israel an important energy player
able ”use its position to achieve strategic aims”, sheds a new light on
the purported objectives of the relentless Israeli attacks against Gaza.
In 2007 a year before Operation Cast Lead in which Palestinian gas
fields were confiscated, Israeli Defense minister and former Israeli
Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya’alon wrote that “Israel
needs additional natural gas sources”. However, purchasing gas from
Palestinians, he claimed, would be “tantamount to Israel’s bankrolling
terror against itself” and that gas revenues cannot be “a key driver of
an economically more viable Palestinian state”. His statement below
clearly shows the links between Israel’s military operations and
Palestine’s oil and gas reserves:
British Gas is supposed to be
the crown jewel of the Palestinian economy, and provide part of the
solution to Israel’s pressing energy needs. The British energy giant,
now called the “BG Group,” and its local partners – the Palestinian
Authority under Mahmoud Abbas and the private, Palestinian-owned
Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) – are currently involved in
advanced negotiations to sell to Israel massive amounts of natural gas –
reserves of nearly 1.4 trillion cubic feet – that BG first discovered
in 2000 off the Gaza coast. The market value of the gas has been
estimated at $4 billion. Therefore, sale of the gas to Israel would mean
a billion-dollar windfall for the PA and, potentially, for the
Palestinian people.
Unfortunately, British assessments, including
those of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, that Gaza gas can be a key
driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state, are misguided.
Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle
down to help an impoverished Palestinian public.
For Israel, the
need for BG’s gas may have already taken a toll. It is possible that the
prospect of an Israeli gas purchase may have played a role in
influencing the Olmert cabinet to avoid ordering a major IDF ground
operation in Gaza …
Clearly, Israel needs additional natural gas
sources, while the Palestinian people sorely need new sources of
revenue. However, with Gaza currently a radical Islamic stronghold, and
the West Bank in danger of becoming the next one, Israel’s funneling a
billion dollars into local or international bank accounts on behalf of
the Palestinian Authority would be tantamount to Israel’s bankrolling
terror against itself. Therefore, an urgent review is required of the
far-reaching security implications of an Israeli decision to purchase
Gaza gas. (Moshe Yaalon, Does the Prospective Purchase of British Gas
from Gaza Threaten Israel’s National Security?, Jerusalem Center for
Public Affairs, October 19, 2007)
What needs to be understood
from that declaration is that Israel will not allow Palestinians to have
a viable economy by exploiting their natural resources. The “terrorist
threat” is just a pretext to maintain Palestine under military
occupation and continue to steal its land and resources.
Independent researchers have indicated that these military operations as
well as the illegal blockade of Gaza are in fact all about oil and gas:
What is now unfolding is the integration of these adjoining gas fields
including those belonging to Palestine into the orbit of Israel. (see
map below). https://www.popularresistance.org/israel-steals-gazas.../
