GAZA’s GAS RESERVES = FACTOR IN ISRAEL’S 7 YEAR IMPLEMENTATION OF REPEATED MURDER AND FLATTENING OF GAZA and ITS ECONOMY.

Click for Video Interview on The Real News Network

“As Israel’s energy issues become more pronounced, repeated military incursions into Gaza show that dominating and exploiting its offshore gas reserves is an increasingly important issue.” — Nafeez Ahmed, A regular Guardian contributor on the geopolitics of energy and Bestselling author of “A User’s Guide to the Crisis of Civilization and How to Save It.” — August 17, 2014

Click for another Source = The Economist Article

ISRAEL’S GAS RESERVES FAR TOO OPTIMISTIC

Oil analysts say this Israel’s gas reserve is wildly over the top. Israel is unlikely to start exporting gas by 2020.  Noble, an American company has so far dominated Israel’s production, says that gas from its Tamar field, which began flowing this year, already supplies 45% of the country’s electricity.  But development of much larger Leviathan field is slow and OVERBLOWN.  Asian buyers, who tend to pay the highest prices, are reluctant for security reasons to ship Israeli gas through the Suez Canal. Israel is loth to strike an export deal with Turkey at a time when that country’s foreign policy has become unpredictable and its prickly prime minister, Erdogan, could turn off the tap whenever he feels piqued.  Egypt’s decision to discard a Mubarak-era agreement to supply 40% of Israel’s gas serves as a warning against doing business amid unresolved conflicts. “Without peace with the Palestinians, we can’t sell our gas to Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and—who knows?—maybe even to the Europeans,” says an Israeli former energy minister, Josef Paritzky.

Interview by ANTON WORONCZUK, TRNN PRODUCER on The Real News Network: Israeli assault on Gaza with MURDER of 1,800+ Palestinians may be connected to Gaza’s estimated 1.4 trillion cubic [feet of] natural gas reserves, valued at $4 billion.

NAFEEZ AHMED: The history of gas reserves goes back to its discovery in 1999 to 2000 by BG Group, a British company. Since the discovery of significant gas resources in Gaza, these resources have played an increasing role in determining the course of the conflict over the last 7 years. Increasingly Israel’s energy issues have become more pronounced. Israel’s repeated military incursions into Gaza appear to be linked to dominating and exploiting these offshore reserves in Gaza.

NAFEEZ AHMED: Israel tried to NEGOTIATE for gas with its favorite parties, the Palestinian Authority run by Fatah. Now, since Operation Cast Lead, it’s my view that the control of the Gazan offshore gas resources has been an increasingly important issue.

NAFEEZ AHMED: 2007 Current defense minister, Moshe Ya’alon, wrote a policy paper explicitly calling for uprooting Hamas to begin drilling work on GAZA’s gas reserves. The scenario he put forward was TO STOP any Palestinian efforts to extract gas to benefit the Palestinian economy — $6+ BILLION — Major strategic threat to Israel desire to keep Palestinians in COMPLETE POVERTY AND APARTHEID.

NOTE: Of course, Israel says it is to keep a KNEE ON THE THROAT OF THE TERRORISTS.

NAFEEZ AHMED: There’s two dimensions here: Strategically prevent Palestinians from accessing the gas resources for their own benefit and becoming an independence state from Israel + Israel wants to ROB the energy resources.

NAFEEZ AHMED: Major discoveries of energy resources inside Israeli territory = Leviathan field + Tamar field = Many, many times larger than what is in Gaza. But over the last few years Israel has faced many bureaucratic, regulatory, and even geophysical hurdles in actually bringing these fields to production (5 years away). I uncovered some British Foreign Office files that had been obtained under Freedom of Information showing the British Foreign Office has a plan to use Gaza’s gas as a cheap stopgap while Israel is trying to bring these other fields into production.

NAFEEZ AHMED: But Hamas stands in the way of British exploitation of GAZA GAS FOR ISRAEL = Denying Palestinians any benefit in developing their own resources and moving towards independence from APARTHEID ISRAEL. So it seems clear that Moshe Ya’alon, senior position in Israel GOV, is executing his ROBBERY plan to fulfill this agenda of crushing Hamas and gaining strategic control over Gaza’s gas.

WORONCZUK: Talk about the energy crisis that Israel is facing?

NAFEEZ AHMED: Israel’s energy crisis is not widely known related to its increasing electricity crises and the inability to bring domestic gas resources to production. Many people in the Israeli oil and gas industry and USA/BRITISH oil and gas industry, are hyping how Israel is now going to be a major geopolitical force as a net exporter of gas in the region = Exporting to Jordan or even Europe

NAFEEZ AHMED: Haaretz Report on Israel develop policy committee’s two chief scientists said the forecasts of production estimates were vastly overestimated = Quantity of gas brought into production was much lower. And Israel has only two choices = Become a net gas importer or use its domestic gas for its own needs. = NO EXPORTS!

NAFEEZ AHMED: Haaretz reported this very important document was not published as part of the committee’s official reports + Left of its website until Haaretz publicized the report. Clearly there was a concern inside at the highest level of Israeli government ending any plans for becoming a major energy exporter. = They saw it as potentially damaging for the reputation and potential contract negotiations with major energy companies internationally wanting to invest in Israel. So Israel needs something as a stopgap = ROB GAZA! FCO files highlight the difficulty in bringing in these existing Israeli fields into production. So ROBBING the Gazan gas could offset this energy crisis.

NAFEEZ AHMED: THIS PARTIAYLLY EXPLAINS THE MURDER AND FLATTENING OF GAZA OVER AND OVER DURING THE LAST 7 YEARS. Netanyahu’s own personal negotiator, and representatives of the BG Group that holds the right to Gaza’s gas said the UNITED Palestinian officials were excluded from this deal. TYPICALLY, Netanyahu gave lip service was that, yes, we want to push forward negotiations with the Palestinians over Gaza’s gas.

NAFEEZ AHMED: Kerry, as part of the peace process, put forward an economic stimulus package including development of the Gaza marine gas. So Netanyahu played a typical double game, effectively, on the one hand saying, yeah, we want to have diplomatic discussions about the gas and about Gaza and about a meaningful two-state solution, and at the same time (in hindsight from Kerry officials) Netanyahu had no intention of a peace agreement = Netanyahu deliberately torpedoed the peace process because he doesn’t want an independent, viable Palestinian state, and simultaneously not allowing Palestinian officials to participate in negotiations involving Gaza’s gas.

NAFEEZ AHMED: It seems very clear that Gaza’s energy resources have certainly played a very important role in Israel’s strategic 7 YEAR IMPLEMENTATION OF REPEATED MURDER AND FLATTENING OF GAZA and ITS ECONOMY.