A Secret Behind Israel’s Siege of Gaza: Palestinians Have Oil and Natural Gas Resources

by Martha Rose Crow, M.S.

Jan 2009

 “…there is an abundance of oil reserves both on the strip and offshore…” http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/entries/q_israeli_palestinian_peace/

 “The Palestinians are, in aggregate, energy rich. For the past six years, the Palestinian Authority has been sitting on a major gas field that contains at least 1.4 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) of gas.” http://www.epalestine.com/PalestineEnergy.pdf

 “…Palestine was rewarded with an oil reserve 22 miles off of the coast of the Gaza Strip.  The entire country was excited by this natural mineral that would hopefully provide them with the economic freedom and financial stability they desired.  Unfortunately, the financial success did not come directly on the heels of their discovery…” http://www.oilandgasinvestingglossary.com/palestines_natural_gas_troubles.asp

 To find the real reasons behind conflicts and wars in this world, you need to follow some or all of four things: Money, blood, power or natural resources (usually oil or natural gas but it can be cobalt like in the Congo).

 Oil is behind the conflicts in Darfur, Somalia and other similar places.

 The war in Afghanistan was never about finding bin Laden.  It was about uniting Afghanistan into a single government so a pipeline could be constructed to bring a million barrels a day from areas north of Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Russia to markets ( http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig/sardi7.html ). 

 We need to stop listening to what the “official” media tells us when it comes to conflicts and wars because the official media is corporate and government owned and/or controlled by government.  Less than one percent of the “news” in the world today is reported and what is reported is usually heavily edited and slanted for propaganda purposes.

 Governments don’t want the world to know that huge genocides are going on just because of oil, gas or other natural resources.  The world might get angry as a body and might organize to reject the genocides.  Big Oil and Energy doesn’t want that to happen because it will interfere with their profits. 

 Historically, it has been “efficient” for Big Energy’s short-term profit line to steal resources or get them “lower than wholesale” than to pay the owners decently for them.  This is how they’ve always done business (force by boot and gun).

 The World has been watching Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians for a long time but incredibly, the media never mentions the Palestinians’ natural resources or the fact that Israel has thwarted Palestine’s efforts to develop them.

 The Palestinians are usually portrayed on television as victims of impossible, cyclical poverty.  Ironic the Palestinians wouldn’t have to live in poverty if Israel would let them develop their natural resources. 

 But developing Palestine’s energy resources wouldn’t be in Israel’s self-interest.  The oil and gas revenues would empower the Palestinians.  They wouldn’t have to starve to death or struggle in poverty.  Empowered Palestinians would be able to invest in infrastructure of their legal government, Hamas.  

 Israel wants the Palestinians crushed and disappeared so Israel can expand its territories for its citizens, have better access to the sea for its navy and serve as watchdog for US and Israeli hegemony. 

 Israel wants the Palestinians’ oil and gas for its own because Israel needs it for its country’s needs.  Middle eastern countries are loathe to sell their supplies to Israel.  The rulers and people of area countries know that Israel has been slaughtering their Muslim kin for over six decades and it is against their morals to help Israel with energy supplies, especially fuel for Israeli tanks, airplanes and military vehicles.

 To thwart Palestine from developing its energy supplies, Israel keeps the region in turmoil plus in 2005, “Israel delivered a major blow to the Palestinians’ fledgling oil industry by choosing to import natural gas from Egypt.  By doing this, Israel completely bypassed its neighbor in favor of making a political statement.  The Israeli government feared that any money given to Palestine would be later used to fund acts of terrorism against (Israel.” http://www.oilandgasinvestingglossary.com/palestines_natural_gas_troubles.asp)

 Finding information about Palestine’s oil and gas resources is difficult.  Even wikipedia doesn’t mention it nor do most encyclopedias and other academic resources.

 The major corporate media has completely ignored and/or has remained blissfully ignorant about Palestinian oil and gas because it goes against the script of how powerful hidden western corporate and government interests want to portray Palestine. 

 Western media, Israel and the US would rather have the world see Palestinians groveling in extreme poverty and/or portrayed as “terrorists” who want to kill everyone. 

 Palestinians, empowered from oil and gas revenues, could live decently.  Shed of their impoverished image, the world would see them as the Bright, Shining Human Beings they are.  But Bright, Shining Human Beings are harder to disappear than those depicted by governments and the media as untermenschen (nazi German term for “inferior people”).

 If you want to know more about this important subject, the best places to look are oil and energy websites and publications.

 Palestinian oil and gas is no secret in the energy field. It’s just a secret to everyone else.