When Israel attacked Gaza late last year its objectives were always a bit murky. As with the US invasion of Iraq the objectives seemed to change as the war went along. Two weeks after the outbreak of hostilities the Israeli government was still mulling its objectives.
The stated objectives were to stop Hamas rocket fire into Israel, to stop smuggling from Egypt into Gaza and to restore the deterrent strength of the IDF. It was clear from the beginning that none of these could be accomplished with a short term incursion into Gaza. So what was going on?
As with most conflicts in this region the answer is “oil” or in this case natural gas.
In 2000, British Gas Group (BG) discovered proven gas reserves of at least 1.3 trillion cubic feet beneath Gazan territorial waters worth nearly $4 billion. A consortium which includes BG and the Palestinian Investment Fund (PIF), a joint venture between the Palestinian Authority and wealthy Palestinian businessmen was formed to develop the resource. The agreement would have resulted in the sale of gas to Israel.
Ariel Sharon’s unilateral withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza in 2005 and the Hamas victory in Palestinian elections in 2006 threw the whole plan into disarray. The Israeli withdrawal made any Israeli legal claims to the resource suspect and Hamas control of the PA would result in funds from Israel reaching Hamas and Gaza and would undermine Israel’s policies toward Hamas.
The only remaining choices for Israel were to either completely destroy Hamas or, failing that, to totally destroy the infrastructure in Gaza in order to prevent a Hamas led government from developing the resource. The enormous destruction of infrastructure during the war and the blockade of all materials necessary to rebuild seems to have accomplished the objective.
Some sources believe that Israel is already “slant drilling” from their adjacent gas fields into the Palestinian fields. It is difficult to verify such claims as Israel has declared this a “closed military area”.
If one is asked a question about why something is happening in the Middle East most people will answer “religion”. A better answer is “oil”.
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