IDF's Gaza Assault Is To Control Palestinian Gas, Avert Israeli Energy Crisis

[Purveyor]

Israel's defence minister has confirmed that military plans to 'uproot Hamas' are about dominating Gaza's gas reserves

Dr. Nafeez Ahmed

Yesterday, Israeli defence minister and former Israeli Defence Force (IDF) chief of staff Moshe Ya'alon announced that Operation Protective Edge marks the beginning of a protracted assault on Hamas. The operation "won't end in just a few days," he said, adding that "we are preparing to expand the operation by all means standing at our disposal so as to continue striking Hamas."

This morning, he said:

"We continue with strikes that draw a very heavy price from Hamas. We are destroying weapons, terror infrastructures, command and control systems, Hamas institutions, regime buildings, the houses of terrorists, and killing terrorists of various ranks of command… The campaign against Hamas will expand in the coming days, and the price the organization will pay will be very heavy."

But in 2007, a year before Operation Cast Lead, Ya'alon's concerns focused on the 1.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas discovered in 2000 off the Gaza coast, valued at $4 billion. Ya'alon dismissed the notion that "Gaza gas can be a key driver of an economically more viable Palestinian state" as "misguided." The problem, he said, is that:

"Proceeds of a Palestinian gas sale to Israel would likely not trickle down to help an impoverished Palestinian public. Rather, based on Israel's past experience, the proceeds will likely serve to fund further terror attacks against Israel…

A gas transaction with the Palestinian Authority [PA] will, by definition, involve Hamas. Hamas will either benefit from the royalties or it will sabotage the project and launch attacks against Fatah, the gas installations, Israel – or all three… It is clear that without an overall military operation to uproot Hamas control of Gaza, no drilling work can take place without the consent of the radical Islamic movement."

more...

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/earth-insight/2014/jul/09/israel-war-gaza-palestine-natural-gas-energy-crisis

[Jefferson23]

1. Good to know. K&R

[Fozzledick]

2. Yeah, the endless rocket attacks have nothing to do with it.

[shira]

3. Tin Foil Hats at the Guardian aren't even trying anymore w/ this crackpot shit.

Hate blinds.

Looks like the past is repeating itself again & we're back in 1938 with the big lie theory.

[Igel]

6. It's a blog.

Hosted by The Guardian.

They're crowd-sourcing, in a funny sort of way.

Then again, my dinner last night was apparently a bit funny, and it's not been something to laugh about.

[shira]

7. Here's the Guardian's Associate Editor Seumas Milne supporting Hamas terror

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1134&pid=23863

This isn't some rare, one-off.

[Scootaloo]

4. Yeah, even I think this claim is a flying leap off a steep incline

[King_David]

5. Ha ha ha ha ha

I think your link to the onion is broken?

[Igel]

8. 1.4 tcf sounds like a lot.

Most estimate it at closer to 1 tcf.

Mari-B had 1.5 tcf. Aphrodite has 7 tcf. Tamar has 10 tcf. Leviathan, 17 tcf. 2013 estimates.

Suddenly Gaza goes from a powerhouse with something that the nasty, grasping Jews are coveting, the apple of everybody's eyes, the navel of the world to ... Well, it's not really all that impressive. They're fighting over 1 tcf, the claim is, when Israel's developing over 40 tcf, which is enough to last Israel for a long, long time. So the blog's a failed attempt to grasp at national importance and prestige.

So the writer attempts to get us to bite at one stereotype and leads us to another. Sad.

[Jefferson23]

9. Your OP needs a bit of background history as some seem unaware of it:

GAS FINDS IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN
:GAZA, ISRAEL, AND Other CONFLICTS

http://www.palestine-studies.org/files/pdf/jps/11844.pdf

[hack89]

10. Israel does not need the Gaza fields to avert an energy crisis

The field off Gaza is one of several gas fields - there are much larger ones that are clearly in the Israeli economic zone