A Letter to Bruce Cain #6
Why the Brutal Assault? #1
Dear Bruce,
The answer to why Israel is currently committing genocide against the Palestinians and occupying Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas (which is obviously a Deep State proxy); it has everything to do with gas. Sam Parker relates:
“British Gas (BG Group) and its partner, the Athens based Consolidated Contractors International Company (CCC) owned by Lebanon’s Sabbagh and Koury families were granted oil and gas exploration rights in a 25-year agreement signed in November 1999 with the Palestinian Authority. The rights to the offshore gas field are respectively British Gas (60 percent); Consolidated Contractors (CCC) (30 percent); and the Investment Fund of the Palestinian Authority (10 percent).”
“The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline.”
“The BG license covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. It should be noted that 60 percent of the gas reserves along the Gaza-Israel coastline belong to Palestine. The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas, in just these two wells, to be of the order of 50 bcm, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas.”
“Currently, the 2 main gas fields are Tamar (300 billion cubic meters) and Leviathan (900 bcm.), for a total of 1.3 trillion cm, worth approx. $400 billion in today’s value. Israel has been extracting around 25-30 bcm a year, earning some $10-12 billion a year.”
“The issue of sovereignty over Gaza’s gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine. The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza’s offshore gas reserves.”
“British Gas (BG Group) has been dealing with the Tel Aviv government. In turn, the Hamas government has been bypassed in regards to exploration and development rights over the gas fields.”
“The election of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in 2001 was a major turning point. Palestine’s sovereignty over the offshore gas fields was challenged in the Israeli Supreme Court. Sharon stated unequivocally that “Israel would never buy gas from Palestine” intimating that Gaza’s offshore gas reserves belong to Israel. In 2003, Ariel Sharon vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza’s offshore wells.”
“The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas. In 2006, British Gas “was close to signing a deal to pump the gas to Egypt.” According to reports, British Prime Minister Tony Blair intervened on behalf of Israel with a view to shunting the agreement with Egypt.”
“The following year, in May 2007, the Israeli Cabinet approved a proposal by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert “to buy gas from the Palestinian Authority.” The proposed contract was for $4 billion, with profits of the order of $2 billion of which one billion was to go the Palestinians. Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority: ‘Israeli defense authorities want the Palestinians to be paid in goods and services and insist that no money go to the Hamas-controlled Government.’”
“The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat. Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza’s offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel…”
“…Israel’s intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel.”
Invasion Plan on the Drawing Board
“The invasion plan of the Gaza Strip under “Operation Cast Lead” was set in motion in June 2008, according to Israeli military sources: “Sources in the defense establishment said Defense Minister Ehud Barak instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for the operation over six months ago [June or before June], even as Israel was beginning to negotiate a ceasefire agreement with Hamas.”
“The decision to speed up negotiations with British Gas (BG Group) coincided, chronologically, with the planning of the invasion of Gaza initiated in June. It would appear that Israel was anxious to reach an agreement with the BG Group prior to the invasion, which was already in an advanced planning stage.”
“Moreover, these negotiations with British Gas were conducted by the Ehud Olmert government with the knowledge that a military invasion was on the drawing board. In all likelihood, a new ‘post war’ political-territorial arrangement for the Gaza strip was also being contemplated by the Israeli government.”
“In fact, negotiations between British Gas and Israeli officials were ongoing in October 2008, 2-3 months prior to the commencement of the bombings on December 27th.”
“The December 2008 military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest.”
“In the wake of the invasion, 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 kilometers of the eastern Mediterranean region.’”[1]
[1] https://behindthenews.co.za/the-gaza-war-part-1-of-a-2-part-series/?fbclid=IwAR1_h2JMIP66nZ9x1hTwHmEayF80Ftr0KuiZzyVWaXcDnHDwNhLM7bka5Mo