Really. It’s all Israel’s fault that the gas deal fell through.
Palestinian gas project ‘is wrecked by Israel’
An offshore gas project in the Mediterranean, which could have earned desperately needed revenue for the Palestinian economy, is in ruins after negotiations to sell the fuel to Israel collapsed.Industry sources blamed Israel for the failure of negotiations with the British multinational BG Group after the Jewish state repeatedly reduced its offer price for the gas.
“This meant that from the off the project would struggle to be economic,” one source told The Daily Telegraph.
Israel also insisted on what insiders called “totally unacceptable security controls” by demanding the ability to stop Palestinian gas from reaching consumers in the Gaza Strip.
So, where is it written, exactly, that Israel must purchase the gas? How is it Israel’s fault that they want a good price for it? And why should Israel’s own gas company not object to the competition, like every other nation’s gas company would do?
Oh, wait. I forgot. It’s The Exception Clause in play here. And look. It’s now all Israel’s fault that the Palestinian economy will never, ever recover from this blow.
The failure of negotiations puts back indefinitely the day when the Palestinian economy receives earnings from the Gaza Marine Field, which was discovered eight years ago amid hopes that it could lead to Palestinian economic independence.
Say, does anyone remember all those greenhouses left behind in Gaza? The ones that would have brought millions in revenues to the Palestinian economy? The ones that the Palestinians ransacked and destroyed? Yeah. Those greenhouses. Those must have been Israel’s fault, too.
Watch how the author of this article manages to completely downplay the terrorism-funding angle involved in the gas field exploitation:
Even though Israel’s growing economy needed gas, Ariel Sharon, the prime minister during the Second Intifada, refused to consider any deal that would generate revenues for his Palestinian enemies.
But Israel’s hostility thawed last year after a number of top-level contacts between Britain and Israel, led by Gordon Brown, then Chancellor, who urged the Israeli government to reconsider the deal.
In the summer of last year, Israel committed itself fully to negotiations and BG Group installed a team of experts in an office close to Tel Aviv hoping to sign an agreement within months.
But talks dragged on, bogged down by concerns the royalties paid by Israel might end up in the hands of its enemies from the elected Hamas government.
This issue was dealt with as the World Bank set up a means to ensure funds paid to Palestinians ended up under the control of Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian national authority who is trusted as a moderate by the international community.
Astonishing, isn’t it, that the Israeli concern about funding terrorism against itself is so blithely discounted by, gee, people who aren’t Israelis? As if Israel has the right to dictated its own defense or something. Who on earth would be so stupid as to think that Israeli security comes before the Palestinian economic needs?
Yes, indeed, Virginia, there are days when I simply hate the news. This would be one of them.