The main news is quiet: Gaza’s real-life Hunger Games

Repost comments——

It looks like something out of the movie The Hunger Games, but sadly, that’s the reality for all of us.

Look at Fox News’ coverage of the war in Gaza. The whole description is like a football game: excited commentators discuss the "players" to the blaring background music, explaining to the kindergarten-level audience who is Sunni and who is Shia. For Metropolis it was really just a game, entertainment against the backdrop of a distant and little-known national death. You know what this reminds me of? North Korean television. Have you seen it, the host's voice is trembling as he yells into the camera.

Meanwhile, The Economist magazine asks a tough question: “What does World War III mean for investors?” … Investors… Well, investors have a responsibility to analyze World War III How will it affect their investment portfolio. So far, the possibility of world war has caused little tremor in the markets. Ho ho…

As always, the main news was the quietest and indeed went unnoticed: Israel issued 12 licenses to six companies to develop natural gas fields in Gaza.

"Over the past 15 years, the discovery of large natural gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean adjacent to the occupied Gaza Strip, Israel , Egypt and Cyprus has led to a series of deals."

The licenses were awarded to : BP (BP), Italy's ENI (ENI.MI), South Korea's Dana Petroleum (Dana Petroleum), Azerbaijan's state oil company SOCAR, and two Israeli companies, Ratio Energy (RATIp. TA) and NewMed Energy.

The purpose of Tel Aviv’s granting of licenses to these companies is to further explore for natural gas reserves on its offshore territory, which is also in line with the occupying power ’s broader goal of becoming an energy hub capable of exporting natural gas to Europe. The besieged and occupied Gaza Strip has no access to any natural resources in the offshore areas monopolized by the occupying power.

Of course they wanted to drive "those beasts" away to Egypt. After all, 1.7 billion barrels of oil cannot be sucked dry.

The economic reasons for the genocide of the Palestinian people are as simple as that.

The picture below shows a Palestinian family that just lost 42 members. Three generations, ranging from 3 to 77 years old, were wiped out by Israel in 24 hours .

Everybody wants gas from Gaza

As Gaza citizens took to the streets to demand a ceasefire, the silence from European leaders was deafening.

Israel has dropped more bombs on Gaza in the past few weeks than in the past few years combined, ignoring weak calls for a "humanitarian ceasefire." Hospitals and refugee camps were targeted, and more than 8,000 people died in the bombings. Amnesty International estimates that more children have been killed in Gaza than in any other conflict zone over the past year.

However, even as the bombs rained down, it was business as usual.

On October 30, Israel issued 12 licenses to six companies, allowing them to explore for natural gas along the country's Mediterranean coast. It is the latest development in one of several natural gas fields discovered along the Mediterranean coast in recent decades, aiming to address Israel's energy dependence and, more importantly, Europe's energy supply.

Total oil and gas reserves were valued at $524 billion in 2019. But according to a United Nations report released that same year, Israel did not have the only legal right to the $524 billion. Not only does some of the $524 billion come from the Occupied Palestinian Territory, but much of the rest is also in the deep sea beyond national borders and should therefore be shared with all parties involved. The report questions the nation-state 's rights to these resources, which took millions of years to form and because the entire territory belonged to the Palestinians before the State of Israel was formally established.

The author of the report also pointed out that the occupying power 's deprivation of citizens' rights to use their own natural resources is considered a war crime, including cutting off Palestine's water supply, cutting off its fishing channels, occupying farmland and destroying olive groves, etc. The economic toll is huge – the real and opportunity costs of occupation/ settler colonialism in oil and gas alone have so far accumulated in the tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars.

Why share when you can export?

Since Israel's founding in 1948, the United States and the European Union have had an unwavering alliance with Israel, and the agreements signed by the two parties have continuously strengthened their ties. In June 2022, under pressure to find another source of natural gas after Russia invaded Ukraine, the EU signed a memorandum of understanding with another colonial power to import natural gas from the Leviathan field, Israel's largest offshore natural gas field. This gas field is the largest gas field discovered recently, with recoverable natural gas reserves of 22 trillion cubic feet, which can meet Israel's domestic needs for 40 years.

The United States went a step further and formulated a U.S.-Israel energy cooperation agreement , which stipulates that "U.S.-Israeli energy cooperation and Israel's development of natural resources are in line with the strategic interests of the United States" and promised to provide assistance to Israel on "regional safety and security issues."

Natural gas is seen as a resource that has a "positive impact on regional security," a policy term for building trade bridges with its Arab neighbors. Egypt began importing natural gas from the Leviathan field in 2020 and signed a memorandum of understanding with Israel and the European Union last year.

Natural gas, or “LNG,” is being used around the world as a political tactic to deepen political relations and economic interdependence, not for moral reasons but simply because oil reserves are running out. Everyone from fossil fuel giants to the president of France calls LNG a “transition fuel,” the darling of fossil fuels that emits 40% less CO2 than coal (a very low bar) and currently has reserves of For global use for 125 years.

As the world's largest producer and exporter of liquefied natural gas, the United States is banking on its energy transition to be natural gas before going green . The Biden administration is expected to approve 20 new LNG terminals this year to transport natural gas from the Permian Basin in the southwestern United States. Analysts say the greenhouse gas emissions associated with this would be twenty times greater than those from oil drilling at Willow, Alaska's controversial new oil field.

Natural gas is the currency of political flattery. In 1999, Gaza almost did this.

gas in gaza

In 1999, the British multinational energy company BG Group (BGG) discovered a large natural gas field 17 to 21 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza. Under the Oslo II Accords, the Palestinian Authority has maritime jurisdiction within 20 nautical miles of the Gaza coast . In November 1999, the Palestinian Authority signed a 25-year natural gas exploration contract with BGG.

Natural gas reserves, estimated at 1 trillion cubic feet, will meet Palestinian needs and allow exports. In July 2000, then- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak approved the authorization for BGG to drill the first well. They struck a natural gas gold mine. Palestine and Israel began negotiations on an agreement that was seen as beneficial to both Israeli demand and Palestinian supplies.

However, a change in Israeli leadership has soured the deal, with Ariel Sharon's government reportedly rejecting a supply deal between Palestinian gas fields and state-owned Israel Electric Power. In May 2002, then-British Prime Minister Tony Blair stepped in and Sharon agreed to negotiate a deal to supply 0.05 trillion cubic feet of Palestinian natural gas per year for 10 to 15 years.

However, he changed his mind in 2003, saying the funds could be used to "support terrorism."

Driven by the new prime minister, Ehud Olmert's government agreed in April 2007 to restart negotiations with the BGG. It is said that starting in 2009, Israel will purchase 0.05 trillion cubic feet of Palestinian natural gas at an annual price of $4 billion to "create a good atmosphere for peace."

But the 2007 Gaza campaign, in which Hamas took control of the Strip, changed the agreement again. Hamas hopes to increase Palestine's original 10% share in the BGG deal. The Israeli government established an Israeli negotiating team, bypassed the Palestinian government and the Palestinian Authority, and reached an agreement with the British/BGG, effectively abrogating the contract signed in 1999 between the BGG and the Palestinian Authority. However, in December 2007, BGG withdrew from negotiations with the Israeli government.

In June 2008, the Israeli government contacted the BGG again to urgently renegotiate the agreement. The UN report states that “the decision to expedite negotiations with the BGG coincides with the time when Israel plans to conduct military operations in Gaza. It seems that the Israeli government hopes to reach an agreement with the BGG before the military operation, which is already in advanced planning.” stage".

Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008, placing Palestinian natural gas fields under Israeli control in defiance of international law. Since then, BGG has been dealing with the Israeli government. The United Nations estimates that the Palestinian people will lose billions of dollars.

Of course, for everyone else, there's more gas.

The situation in Palestine is more complex than the location of the gas fields, but geopolitics and geology chart a similar course . In the EU, demand for allied-approved gas is higher than ever, perhaps emboldening support for Israeli war crimes while denouncing Russian war crimes. As for the United States, the pipeline network is a network of dependents, and energy dependents do not threaten hegemonic structures. In the midst of all these calculations, Palestinians are being killed — another external feature of the petrostate. Of course that's something a ruler would never consider.

——Repost comment——

I have been watching the public opinion about Palestine and Israel for several days. Found a problem.

Eliminating all uneducated expressions, what remains highlights a strong consensus that all attempts by intellectuals to debate the war in Palestine have failed utterly; that the culprits are not intellectuals, Rather, it is the spirit of modernity itself, whose main principle is what Zygmunt Bauman calls "the return to the tribe." This view holds that there are two opposing knowledge frameworks with which it is impossible to engage in dialogue and seek common ground, since each knowledge framework relies on "its own facts" ("background"/context ), as opposed to "the opponent's facts." Both sides believe that "neutral facts" do not exist. Any argument therefore becomes an attempt to undermine an alternative way of knowing that is declared a crime. Sympathy for certain victims automatically means a refusal to acknowledge the reality of other victims. Language is therefore no longer a way to escape violence, but a tool to continue the war by another means. When people cannot understand, they can only destroy...

At first glance it seems to be something like that. But it's still not right.

Attempts to talk about the war in Palestine failed not because of “oppositional intellectual frameworks.” But because of the material realities of this war.

When you start talking about the impossibility of dialogue due to differences in "subjects of fact," you are ignoring the positions of all parties and turning the focus to ideology. The Palestinian people 's national liberation struggle against the colonizers was turned into a spiritual construct - a "naturally" controversial political perspective.

Those who blame the failure of dialogue on the "modern spirit" are particularly shocking. Shocked by idealism, substituting subjective knowledge for objective reality; it is a mood of the times, a state of the times - a flickering, ghostly thing, like obsession. What kind of “spirit” would prevent people from discussing with apartheid their arguments in favor of genocide?

The desire to reconcile "both sides" is understandable and noble, but... also absolutely insufficient. Yes everyone wants a ceasefire "because we are humans, not animals". But this kind of pacifism reflects only a personal wish, which is consistent with the heart but inconsistent with reality.

Those who believe that genocide is necessary for acceptability do not need further arguments to be persuaded to change their views. They simply made their choice and eliminated anything that prevented them from accepting it by affirming it in their "identity." The problem is not that they don't understand something; the problem is that they side with the aggressors and turn themselves into the aggressors. This did not take away their status as human beings, but it did change their political status. The perpetrators of genocide are no longer interlocutors. They are rivals.

Talking about "frameworks of knowledge" and "bodies of fact" takes you away from the essence of what's going on - here are two peoples , with a piece of land that they each live on and claim as their own . Most importantly, there are vast reserves of natural gas deep within the land, allowing its owners to enjoy the enormous political power that energy brings for decades to come . As an energy importer, Israel will be able to become independent from its existing suppliers and help Europe escape the Urals dilemma . The problem is that it is the Palestinian people who stand in the way of this goal. Are you ready to sacrifice them for your "right wing cause"? If the answer is yes, it means that people who do not serve themselves will be punished by heaven and earth. But why is the other side supporting Ukraine? If the rationality of bullying the small is established? Why not just take everything you want?

The impossibility of dialogue is not due to differences in "facts" but due to differences in interests. The interests are opposing. Who should talk to whom? Victim versus aggressor?

The key to the problem is not the Arab-Israeli "conflict". There is no answer (there is an answer, but we can discuss this later). The point now is, people don't like any of the answers. You can't say what you should say because it's either too mild and feels like nothing has been said, or you know that speaking directly about fairness and facts may even put your personal safety at risk. Therefore, everyone unanimously calls the genocidal war a "conflict", says it is "complicated", and demands: "Stop the evil!"

The evil will not stop. It won’t rest until all species of Arab ancestry are wiped off the face of Palestine, and then it will make videos telling you that the corpses you see on the screen are works of art by artificial intelligence; thousands of Israelis How the explosion of tens of thousands of bombs is different, more kind and "civilized"; the Arabs are bombarding themselves; real war is not that terrible, and the sword is not made of iron.

Israel has everything it needs to destroy Palestine. However, the "final solution" to the Palestinian issue will not be the end of the story. The ending will be a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood. The despicable monster stands on the mountain of corpses and sea of ​​blood. Looking around, he sees 465 million Arabs determined to face the "catastrophe" The organizers show how big Allah is.

Meanwhile, the world is witnessing the famous "Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi / Gods may do what cattle may not". Where is the resistance? Where are the sanctions? Where is the embargo? Facts themselves are beyond knowledge.

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