JPost: War on Gaza Actually About Getting Natural Gas From Off Gaza Shores Without Paying Hamas

JPost is usually extremely favorable to the Israeli expansionist policies and, its bent while reporting that Israel would actually start a war to grab someone another people's resources without paying makes me think that they don't understand what a horrific purpose to which  they are admitting.

You go into an enclave and commit mass slaughter just to grab their resources for free?

That's as bad as the US!

Excerpts Jerusalem Post report "The $4 billion opportunity off the coast of Gaza":

In 1999, after paying the Palestinian Authority an undisclosed sum, BG, along with its partner, Consolidated Contractors Corporations, acquired the concession to survey for natural gas in 1,000 square kilometers of the Gaza Marine area.

In their agreement with BG, the PA stipulated that BG must pay it at least 10 percent of the royalties from any future sales of the gas, which the PA said would be placed directly into its Palestinian Investment Fund. 

BG and CCC set about conducting seismic tests to determine if the field contained the valuable gas they had hoped for; in early 2000, BG confirmed that the field contained a large quantity.

Over the ensuring six and a half years, BG and officials from the Finance and National Infrastructures ministries tried to reach an agreement to pump the gas into Israel. But the two sides could not agree on the price. 

Yet even before the talks broke off, the situation shifted dramatically in June 2007 when Hamas violently ousted Fatah from power in the Gaza Strip, claiming ownership of the gas fields off the coast and the proceeds from the sale of the gas.

This posed a serious problem for both Israel, which obviously was not going to pay a portion of the money to Hamas, and to BG, which was banned by its government from negotiating with Hamas.

...

Looking at the current situation, the main objective of the IDF is to break down Hamas to the point where it is no longer capable of attacking Israel, or to negotiate a binding cease-fire agreement with an assurance from Hamas that it will stop its daily rocket attacks and cease smuggling weapons into Gaza through tunnels connected to Egypt.

Removing Hamas from power in Gaza and reinstating Fatah will be almost impossible. However, according to newspaper reports, cabinet ministers have been told that some Hamas leaders in Gaza are desperate for a cease-fire and would be willing to settle on almost any terms stipulated by Israel. 

Of course, there's more.  I just wanted to give you the idea.  JPost also frames the problem as a virtuous ploy by the government of Israel rather than the resource grab which violates international law it is.

So now rockets still fire out of Gaza, but Israel isn't starting up the conflict again, because it looks like Hamas is so battered they will not demand their due royalties on the natural gas pumped from their exclusive oceanic economic zone which could be used to feed their people and rebuild the enclave, possibly creating a nation that could support itself and give its people a better life.

(Of course, while saying this, I realize that it is little different than what the US tried to do with Iraq.  Unfortunately for us, Iraqis are not about to hand over their oil for a low price, let alone free, and basically I am very confortable with that.  We should get the shaft for invading another people's nation, based on lies, but with the true intent of grabbing their resources for a low price if not absolutely free. 

tags: gaza  israel  natural gas  resources  pretroleum  produt royalties  war crimes  

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