Good news
Even in the middle of a war sometimes good news suddenly pops up. There has been a major find of a natural gas field ca. 90 km off the coast of Israel near Haifa. It is so huge that it could supply Israel's energy needs for 15 years. It is called Tamar and contains ca. 88 billion cubic metres of gas! Do you know what this means? No more dependence on Arab oil, no more dependence on gas from Egypt! This will make Israel energy independent (except for gasoline for cars) for a long time. However, it will take some time to develop and exploit this discovery.
During the war in Gaza an article appeared in the Jerusalem Post about the previous oil/gas finds off the Gaza coast. When Arafat was in charge of the PA and the find was made a proposal was prepared for him by British Gas and its allies who had the options for the development of the field. This required Israeli cooperation, since to get out to the field required use of Israeli facilities, ships and permission. The proposed payment from BG was ca. m$400 per year, that would easily have made Gaza independent and would have greatly improved its people's standard of living. But, Arafat rejected the proposal. One speculation as to why is that he wanted to keep the Gaza population poor and desperate, blaming Israel for their predicament. Later when Hamas took over they made an approach to BG to reconsider exploiting the find, but the British Government forbade this since they regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Israel accepted that the field discovered off the Gaza coast belonged to the PA, and Israel was prepared to deal with them and pay for its share of the gas. Now, however, the latest Israeli find makes Israel independent of the PA, Egypt and all other suppliers of oil to Israel.
In another category altogether, there is a drive among Israelis to collect food and clothing for the Gazans. Not that they would accept it from Jews any way. But, it is a nice thought that some Israelis are trying to help on a personal level the unfortunates who are without. That's the Jewish way, but it won't be recognized by the media or the enemy.
During the war in Gaza an article appeared in the Jerusalem Post about the previous oil/gas finds off the Gaza coast. When Arafat was in charge of the PA and the find was made a proposal was prepared for him by British Gas and its allies who had the options for the development of the field. This required Israeli cooperation, since to get out to the field required use of Israeli facilities, ships and permission. The proposed payment from BG was ca. m$400 per year, that would easily have made Gaza independent and would have greatly improved its people's standard of living. But, Arafat rejected the proposal. One speculation as to why is that he wanted to keep the Gaza population poor and desperate, blaming Israel for their predicament. Later when Hamas took over they made an approach to BG to reconsider exploiting the find, but the British Government forbade this since they regard Hamas as a terrorist organization.
Israel accepted that the field discovered off the Gaza coast belonged to the PA, and Israel was prepared to deal with them and pay for its share of the gas. Now, however, the latest Israeli find makes Israel independent of the PA, Egypt and all other suppliers of oil to Israel.
In another category altogether, there is a drive among Israelis to collect food and clothing for the Gazans. Not that they would accept it from Jews any way. But, it is a nice thought that some Israelis are trying to help on a personal level the unfortunates who are without. That's the Jewish way, but it won't be recognized by the media or the enemy.
posted by Jack Cohen at 8:58 AM
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