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Also read "Is it Qassams or Gas? (Part 2) here!"

What we all know is that Israel needs no reason for its continuous crimes against the Palestinians in Gaza in particular and Arab in general.

The Iron Pipes called Qassams DON'T KILL, as Turkey told Israel; while every terrorist attack by IOF in Gaza kills dozens of Palestinians, and worsen are the results of the Israeli-siege on Gaza.

So, what could be more possible reason and why now?

What most of us don't know (because such stories DON'T make news) is Gaza's "Natural Gas Field" story.

Few days ago on Flashpoints, Mark Turner (Research Journalism Initiative) spoke with Nora Barrows-Friedman (at 10:50 into the show, if you download it or listen online where it is archived) about one hidden-possible reason for the Israeli escalation, the large natural gas field in Palestinian waters off the coast of Gaza [Hat tip: Left I on the News].

As I said before, this news story has been largely overlooked, therefore, please allow me to give a brief background here so that we understand the relevancies.

Few years ago (in 2005), British Gas (BG) discovered a large field of natural gas under Gaza Strip.

The announcement of the gas find was made last week by Azzam Al Shawwa, head of the Palestinian energy and natural resources authority. He said that gas giant British Gas (BG), which owns drilling rights to large natural gas reserves off the coasts of Gaza, had discovered a large field within the regional waters of the Gaza Strip.

Shawwa said that the gas field, estimated as holding 60 billion cubic meters, would require an investment of $500 million for pipelines and production facilities.

Along with the news came an announcement that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Egyptian government had signed an agreement on June 29 that gave the PA access to Egypt's gas pipeline network to transport and market the Gaza gas.

Gazans, like everyone else, are suffering from the increasing prices of fossil fuels, including natural gas, which they use mainly for cooking. Tapping abundant natural gas is expected to be a great boost for the impoverished population. Shawwa said that some gas would be used domestically thereby radically decreasing its price in the Palestinian territories.

Despite the jubilant Palestinian response to the news, some experts remain skeptical of Israel's silence toward the news.

"Where is Israel in all this?" asked Mohammed Hijazi, an economic commentator in Gaza. "Israel is always in the market for natural resources.

"An agreement between Israel Electric [company] and the Egyptian company EMB was under negotiation late in 2004," he said, adding, "There have been reports in the Israeli press that the Russian gas producing company Gazprom is working on a deal to sell Israel 4 million cubic meters of natural gas annually via a pipeline through Turkey. Locking up the much closer Palestinian natural gas production would be a bonanza for Israel."

Indeed, the Israeli government is partner to the PA in a small gas field to the north of the Gaza Strip. Israel has in the past blocked Palestinian gas export and production agreements in an attempt to come out with benefit for itself. [Source]

Two years later -2007- nothing moved because Israel put her ass on the road.

At least one commercially-exploitable gas field, Gaza Marine, is located within a Palestinian maritime economic activity zone demarcated in 1994 by the Oslo Accords.

Negotiations quietly underway for months to agree on commercial arrangements to exploit and market Gaza Marine gas were reportedly progressing slowly toward completion, when Hamas took over the Gaza Strip almost two weeks ago.

BG Group, formerly British Gas reports that, after a few days of cautious reevaluation of the situation last week, negotiations with the Israeli government were continuing.

BG is conducting the negotiations along two tracks. Israel is to be one of the major customers, and the Palestinians will be another.
[...]

The negotiations are proving to be painstaking, and the parties are reportedly going into great detail. They are now translating each other's gas laws. An Israeli official with knowledge of the negotiations told the Middle East Times that it is no secret that price is the main issue on the table now. He also indicated that both sides wanted to reap tax revenues from the deal.

Why should Israel expect to receive taxes from the sale of Gaza oil? The official explained: "If you want to sell something to me, you should pay taxes on the sale."

Less than one month ago, the Hamas national unity government economy minister, Ziad Al Thatha, denounced the proposed deal with Israel as treachery, and said it was equivalent to the 1917 Balfour Declaration, by which the British Government promised its support for the creation of a Jewish national home in Palestine.
[...]

From the beginning, the idea was to sell a good part of Gaza's gas to Israel. But, in mid-2005, during the process of Israel's "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip, Palestinians decided that they preferred to sell to Egypt instead.

This decision was reversed several months ago, after a personal intervention by former British prime minister Tony Blair, who pleaded Israel's case with BG after being contacted by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
[...]

Whether by great good luck, or by design, the 1994 "Gaza-Jericho first" Agreement negotiated under the Oslo process between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), demarcated a 32-kilometer (20-mile) maritime zone for Palestinian fishing and economic activities off Gaza's Mediterranean coastline.

The Gaza Marine field is located in the Mediterranean, some 25 kilometers to 30 kilometers or so, offshore Gaza.
[...]

Retired Israeli brigadier general Shlomo Brom told the Middle East Times in a recent interview in his Tel Aviv office at the Institute for National Security Studies that Israel had no interest in seeing the Palestinians impoverished.

At the same time, he indicated, it was also in Israel's interest to diversify its sources of supply. With this proposed deal, Israel would be able to buy natural gas from the Palestinians as well as from Egypt. Israeli demand for natural gas is expected to rise significantly in future years.
[...]

At the time of Israel's "disengagement" from Gaza in September 2005, Israeli Brigadier General Michael Herzog was a visiting military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He wrote an article entitled, "A New Reality on the Egypt-Gaza Border (Part II): Analysis of the New Israel-Egypt Agreement," in which he explained that Israel continued to maintain control over all of Gaza's external security, including over its territorial waters. He also wrote that "in the agreed arrangements, Egypt gave de facto recognition to Israeli control of the sea off the Gaza coast." [Source]

So, what happened since then?

On January 8 2008, British Gas announced that they are giving up Israeli stake and are shutting its office outside Tel Aviv, and plans to surrender its share in a small Israeli gasfield, following the breakdown of talks over selling Palestinian gas to Israel. Instead, BG said it was considering other options for the gas, of which the most attractive seems to be building a pipeline to Egypt, where the gas could be liquefied for export at a plant part-owned by BG. Remember that to pipe the gas to Egypt was the first plan, but under pressure from Tony Blair (wonder what was his commission for this job), the plan was altered so that some of the gas would be piped to Israel at LOW PRICES.

So, where is Qassams? In fact it is not Qassams, but Hamas. The Israeli/Palestinian negotiations failed because Israel was concerned about the prospect of revenues from the project flowing to Hamas, while the Palestinians worried that Israel would be able to cut off the flow of gas into Gaza (according to FT). Israel also baulked at paying the price that BG wanted for the gas!!! Does this sound familiar? THEY WANT EVERYTHING, BUT NOTHING IN RETURN.

Therefore, magnifying Israel's (as well Abbas and his gang) need to precipitate the fall of Hamas. The siege on Gaza by Israel, in partnerships with Abbas and his "Palestinian Authority" – the actual authority was elected by the Palestinians, HAMAS – is not a coincidence. The fact is that Hamas won at the RIGHT TIME, to stop more bleeding of Palestinian resources that filled the pockets of Abbas Authority. Does anyone remember the term "Corrupted Palestinian Authority"? That was how Israel, US, EU and most of the Arab world refer to Abbas (and before him Arafat's) Cabinet. Where did the "corrupted authority" go? Check the offices of "Ramallah Government".

So, the equation is straight… Gas for Life (at least for a while)!