War and Natural Gas: The Israeli Invasion and Gaza’s Offshore Gas Fields. More than five years ago, Israel invaded Gaza under “Operation Cast Lead”. The following article was first published by Global Research in January 2009 at the height of the Israeli bombing and invasion under Operation Cast Lead. 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 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.
Michel Chossudovsky, January 3, 2014 Map 1 Map 2. Washington’s Blog: War in Gaza = War Over Natural Gas? As Professor Michel Chossudovsky noted in 2009, gas may be a central reason for the war over Gaza as well: This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline.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).
(Haaretz, October 21, 2007).The PA-BG-CCC agreement includes field development and the construction of a gas pipeline. (Middle East Economic Digest, Jan 5, 2001).The BG licence covers the entire Gazan offshore marine area, which is contiguous to several Israeli offshore gas facilities. (See Map below). Map 3. Mads Gilbert, eyewitness to 'Cast Lead', says Gaza remains besieged and 'shattered'
Two years ago, Dr. Mads Gilbert (right) told me that his experience in Gaza during Israel’s assault in 2009 was the “most horrific experience” of his life, a grim honor previously held by Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, which Gilbert also witnessed. Gilbert spent over two weeks as one of the only foreign doctors in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, and worked at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Currently a professor of medicine at the University of North Norway, Gilbert is the co-author of the book Eyes in Gaza, which chronicles what he witnessed during the Israeli assault and invasion.
Today, Gilbert says Gaza remains in ruins, betrayed by the international community. The blockade of Gaza remains, and Israeli air strikes continue to kill civilians. Gilbert, who is known for his deeply personal and riveting presentations on the Gaza Strip, recently concluded a speaking tour in the United States. I caught up with Gilbert before his talk at Columbia University. MG: Yes. MG: Yes. 7 January 2009 - The Mattar Family. [The following is narrative twelve, within a series of twenty-three narratives, to mark the third anniversary of "Operation Cast Lead.
" A new post will be released each day, marking the incident that happened on the same date three years ago. The narratives are developed by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.] “It would be great if someone could take me to the dessert and leave me there, that way I wouldn’t have to see people.” At around 09:30 on 7 January 2009, Israeli forces targeted the al-Taqwa Mosque in the Sheikh Radwan district of Gaza City. Mahmoud tells of the changes in his life since the attack: “I used to go by myself to the sea.
His isolation has left him with a bleak outlook on life. The emotional and physical scars of 7 January 2009 have taken their toll on Mahmoud. Mahmoud has been left anxious and short tempered. Mahmoud has also had to adapt to the new challenges he faces, including learning brail, which took him a year of dedicated study. 10 January 2009: Wafa al-Radea. [The following is narrative fifteen, within a series of twenty-three narratives, to mark the third anniversary of "Operation Cast Lead. " A new post will be released each day, marking the incident that happened on the same date three years ago. The narratives are developed by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.]
“When I left my children I was walking and my children had not seen my wounds. The most difficult moment was when I came back with only 1 leg and many injuries. On 10 January 2009, at around 16:30, Wafa al-Radea (thirty-nine) and her sister Ghada (thirty-two) were targeted by two Israeli drone missiles while walking on Haboub street, one of the main roads in Beit Lahiya. “When people came to help I could hear them speak but was unable to respond. Wafa vividly remembers the months she spent in Egypt. Wafa is the mother of eight children: Ehab (twenty), Lina (nineteen), Hani (seventeen), Shourouq (fifteen), Mo’taz (thirteen), Saher (twelve), Jehad (nine), and Iyad (three).
13 January 2009: Hibba al-Najjar. [The following is narrative seventeen, within a series of twenty-three narratives, to mark the third anniversary of "Operation Cast Lead. " A new post will be released each day, marking the incident that happened on the same date three years ago. The narratives are developed by the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.] “The first two years I could manage but this year I have been suffering a lot from the loss of my mother. When I see girls from my school with their mother or talking about their mother, I miss my mother even more. I need to have her with me.”
In the early morning of 13 January 2009, following two days of home demolitions, the Israeli army started to shell the village of Khuza’a and its surroundings, using high explosive and white phosphorous artillery shells. Israeli bulldozers, tanks and snipers were located on the edge of the village. “I can still hear the bullet hit my mother in the head. Hibba is an the only child. Goldstone breathes new life into Gaza report. Ever since it first struck the raw nerve of Israeli political consciousness, I thought it misleading to associate the Goldstone Report so exclusively with its chair, Judge Richard Goldstone. After all, despite his deserved prominence as an international jurist, he was the least substantively qualified of the four members of the mission.
Part of the intensely hostile Israeli reaction undoubtedly had to do with the sense that Goldstone - a devoted Zionist - had been guilty of betrayal. Perhaps even the betrayal of 'a blood libel,' because he seemed to be elevating his fidelity to the 'law' above tribal loyalties; he should never have been mixed up with such a suspect entity as the UN Human Rights Council in the first place. What should be observed - and what stands out over time - is the degree of importance that even the extremist Israeli leadership attaches to avoiding stains on its reputation as a law-abiding political actor.
Studies and Israel's premeditation Goldstone defined. Goldstone’s Retreat? by David Shulman | NYRBlog. Richard Goldstone’s much-discussed retraction of key findings in his committee’s report on the 2009 Gaza war has produced in Israel a predictable burst of self-congratulation. From the prime minister on down, the message from the Israeli government is a defiant “We told you so!” Spoken from the always-privileged vantage point of an innocent victim wrongly accused. Along with this, we have an updated Israeli version of the Prodigal Son; Goldstone, a South African former judge and liberal Zionist of the old school, has supposedly come (rather shamefacedly) back home. The government spokesmen clearly, perhaps deliberately, miss the point.
But serious questions remain about Israel’s Gaza war; Goldstone’s recent statement does nothing to dispel them, nor, I would guess, did he intend to do so. Let’s be clear: before the war, the Hamas and its allies bombarded Israel with many hundreds of rockets aimed deliberately at killing civilians. WikiLeaks: US Helped Israel Contain UN Probe Into Alleged War Crimes in Gaza. WASHINGTON — The United States worked behind the scenes to help Israel contain UN probes into possible war crimes committed during the 2008-2009 Gaza war, Foreign Policy reported Tuesday.
The online foreign affairs magazine cited exclusive WikiLeaks cables detailing moves by the US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice to prevent a more thorough UN investigation of alleged abuses during the conflict. Some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed during the three-week-long Israeli offensive in December 2008 and January 2009, which was aimed at halting Palestinian rocket attacks.
According to one cable, Rice spoke with UN chief Ban Ki-moon three times on May 4, 2009 to urge him to remove recommendations for a wider investigation from a board of inquiry report into attacks on UN sites in Gaza. Rice "underscored the importance of having a strong cover letter that made clear that no further action was needed and would close out this issue," the US diplomatic cable said.
More vindication for Goldstone: British news reports Israeli soldiers were ordered to ‘cleanse’ Gaza neighborhoods during Cast Lead. It sounds really terrible to say ‘cleanse’ but those were the orders. - Israeli tank commander Wednesday night the British television network Channel 4 ran the story above using footage from a documentary shot by Israeli filmmaker Nurit Kedar. These testimonies, like those collected by Breaking the Silence, confirm many of the findings of the Goldstone Report, including the intentional targeting of wide swaths of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure.
In the video a 24-year-old tank commander recounts being told that the Israeli soldiers entry into Gaza was to be “disproportionate”. He says that his orders were clear: “We needed to cleanse the neighbourhoods, the buildings, the area. It sounds really terrible to say “cleanse”, but those were the orders….I don’t want to make a mistake with the words.”
Another solider recalls the absurdity of killing chickens and destroying the Sawafeary chicken farm. Here’s an interview with filmmaker Nurit Kedar that touches some on these issues: