Olja bakom operation Gjutet bly?

För flera år sen fann man oljereserver i medelhavet, utanför Palestina och Libanon. Reserverna är inte jämförbara med de som finns i Irak och Saudi Arabien, men värderas ändå till mångmiljardbelopp. Vi snackar om 100-tals miljarder kronor, minst. Då Palestina och Jordanien tillhörde det brittiska kolonisamväldet tills andra världskriget har Israel och British Gas förhandlat om att borra efter olja strax utanför Gaza-remsan.

Syftet med kriget var att krossa Hamas och bevisa för världen att Israel är fortfarande en regionell stormakt. Efter nederlaget i Libanon 2006, valde man att sikta in mot Hamas, som är en mindre organisation än Hizbollah. Man försökte garantera seger över Hamas, men misslyckades som sagt. Ändå försökte israeliska trupper döda så många civila som det går. Man använde även vit fosfor och kemiska vapen för att minska fertiliteten i Gaza-remsan. Vit fosfor användes flitigt mot de områden där många barn befann sig, tydligen för att skada så många barn som möjligt.

"The military invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli Forces bears a direct relation to the control and ownership of strategic offshore gas reserves. This is a war of conquest. Discovered in 2000, there are extensive gas reserves off the Gaza coastline. 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).

The BG Group drilled two wells in 2000: Gaza Marine-1 and Gaza Marine-2. Reserves are estimated by British Gas to be of the order of 1.4 trillion cubic feet, valued at approximately 4 billion dollars. These are the figures made public by British Gas. The size of Palestine's gas reserves could be much larger. The issue of sovereignty over Gaza's gas fields is crucial. From a legal standpoint, the gas reserves belong to Palestine.

The death of Yasser Arafat, the election of the Hamas government and the ruin of the Palestinian Authority have enabled Israel to establish de facto control over Gaza's offshore gas reserves. In 2003, Ariel Sharon, vetoed an initial deal, which would allow British Gas to supply Israel with natural gas from Gaza's offshore wells. The election victory of Hamas in 2006 was conducive to the demise of the Palestinian Authority, which became confined to the West Bank, under the proxy regime of Mahmoud Abbas.

Tel Aviv, however, had no intention on sharing the revenues with Palestine. An Israeli team of negotiators was set up by the Israeli Cabinet to thrash out a deal with the BG Group, bypassing both the Hamas government and the Palestinian Authority: The objective was essentially to nullify the contract signed in 1999 between the BG Group and the Palestinian Authority under Yasser Arafat.

Under the proposed 2007 agreement with BG, Palestinian gas from Gaza's offshore wells was to be channeled by an undersea pipeline to the Israeli seaport of Ashkelon, thereby transferring control over the sale of the natural gas to Israel.

The deal fell through. The negotiations were suspended: Israel's intent was to foreclose the possibility that royalties be paid to the Palestinians. In December 2007, The BG Group withdrew from the negotiations with Israel and in January 2008 they closed their office in Israel.(BG website)."

Intervju av president Mahmoud Ahmadenijad och Jeff Steinberg av Press TV:s Afshin Rattansi och George Galloway. Notera att de är två helt separata intervjuer.