So that
is, sort of where it stands. Then, if this could not be resolved by
negotiations, you would have access to the U.N.'s Law of the Sea tribunal, down
there in Jamaica. So we're talking about, you know, hundreds of
billions of dollars worth of gas there.
DB: So...
FB: But we really don't know precisely how much there is, but it's enormous, and it would help the Israeli
people too. I mean right now, there is some being pumped out of there but given
the disputed status of the title it is not much. So if you're
talking about massive exploitation of this gas, certainly Israel has a very long
coastline there on the Mediterranean. But Gaza does too, and the Palestinians are
entitled to their cut.
DB: So you are
saying when the Israelis fire at the Gaza strip from the water offshore in
Gaza, they are firing, they are sort of floating over these very extensive oil
resources. When these Israeli war ships intercept boats coming
from Turkey and other places trying to break the siege on Gaza, they are being
attacked. And the Israelis are killing international activists
over the waters where these resources are existing. So it is a
rather obvious attempt to defend the resources that they want to
steal.
FB:
That's correct, Dennis. And what I'm suggesting is, you know,
in theory it could be possible for, you know, everyone to sit down...the stakeholders which I would identify primarily as Israel, Palestine, Lebanon....to a
lesser extent Cypress and Turkey, so that there would have to be an equitable
but lawful sharing of these gas supplies. But right now, you know, Israel
doesn't want to share it with anyone. And yet, you know,
Cypress and Turkey seem to be enforcing what they believe are their
claims. And Lebanon is doing the same, which means then that all
these conflicting claims to these resources, at this point in time, makes it
difficult for there to be a viable exploitation of those resources,
right.
This
isn't just what's going on there in Gaza. Israel is in fact staking a de
facto claim, as it were, to these tremendous gas resources which, by the way, I
don't know exactly how it would pan out in diving it up here, but it would
probably make Israel energy interdependent as well. As you know,
they really have no domestic sources of energy supplies there at all.
Estimates I've read is maybe for the next hundred years, but of course, that' s cutting the Palestinians out of the picture. Right now they get their, you know, they get oil and gas from Egypt but that's been disrupted, and then they have to scramble around to get it anywhere else. So this is a very important factor in the equation, you know, together with the water. Most of the water -- the aquifers -- are on the West Bank. This is Palestinian water and the settlers are stealing it.
I was over there once where I saw a Palestinian village literally thirsting to death because it had no water. And I followed the pipeline upstream to Aerial, a settlement there on the West Bank, where I could see the water being diverted from the village so that the settlers could have an Olympic-sized swimming pool. And since I've been there, I've now read that they have two Olympic-sized swimming pools in Aerial. But, you know, this is outrageous -- unacceptable. Clearly it's plunder of Palestinian water resources.
And if
you note in today's resolution submitted by the Palestinians at the U.N. they
have made it quite clear that any final settlement is going to have to involve
water because it is their water that is being stolen by Israel. So, you know, we see Israel stealing, plundering natural resources,
certainly water on the West Bank, and now they're going after all these gas
fields in the Mediterranean. Now I am prepared to admit that,
yes, they do have a valid claim, but it's not all their own. They are going to have to sit down with Lebanon and Palestine and, to a
lesser extent, Cypress and Turkey, that had laid claims to some of these gas
fields.
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