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The Canadian daily Globe and Mail's readers were no doubt pleased to read that, "A massive offshore natural gas reserve is poised to give Israel energy security, freeing the desert nation from the threat of boycotts and reshaping the political dynamics of the Middle East." Why a gas field is poised to do anything I don't know, however once we start exploiting the field I'm sure this valuable commodity will change a lot of things in this "desert nation". I will be able to trade-in my camel for something with four wheels and maybe move out of the goat hair tent I live in. In addition I suggest that the Globe and Mail reporter Adrian Morrow visit Israel some time

Simon Henderson, director of the Gulf and Energy Policy Program at The Washington Institute, preferred to use more modest superlatives. He said it is, "a 'significant natural gas field' …making it the world's largest deepwater gas discovery in ten years… Although the discovery adds less than 0.4 percent to the world's proven gas reserves, it is a significant boost for Israel's economy -- indeed, exploiting the field and other possible finds in the Eastern Mediterranean could dramatically change the economic fortunes of Israel and its neighbours."
Adrian Morrow does however provide an important yardstick. He said the gas field is estimated to contain 16 trillion cubic feet of gas equivalent to more than a quarter of Canada's proven reserves sufficient to satisfy Israel's energy requirements for the next hundred years.

Well at long last there is a supplement to the old joke about the Promised Land. When Moses was asked by God to choose a land for the chosen people the stammering leader of the fledgling Jewish nation wanted Canada with its enormous natural wealth. Unfortunately Moses got tongue-tied on the first syllable and we got Canaan instead. Now with the discovery of the offshore gas fields the deity's real intention is apparent. We got gas too, a nicer climate and nice neighbours as part of the bargain.

Unfortunately our new found wealth comes with several problems. The three companies engaged in the quest face the challenge of drilling far beneath the sea bed in deep water. They will need to be innovative in designing and building the infrastructure to transport the gas. Already at this early stage almost six years before we start extracting gas from below the sea bed the energy companies and Israel's ministry of finance are haggling over the rate of tax payable on gas revenues.

Our nice neighbours are less than glad about the new situation. Tiny Cyprus is the exception; it signed a maritime agreement with Israel. However Lebanon, Syria and Turkey have voiced their opposition to Israel's gas exploration efforts and the expected exploitation of the gas fields.

The news of the Leviathan (the name given to the gas field) findings' size has also prompted protests from Cairo, which warned that it would closely follow the drawing of the field's boundaries to ensure they do not infringe on Egypt's EEZ (exclusive economic zone) or its own previously signed maritime agreement with Cyprus.

Debka Files a news source that has a tendency to embellish its reports claims that the collaboration between Jerusalem and Nicosia in the exploration of Mediterranean energy resources, backed strongly from Athens, is growing stronger. It is spreading into additional strategic spheres, complementing increasing ties between Israel and Greece.

Last month Turkey criticised the maritime mapping accord between Cyprus and Israel, saying it was "null and void" because it disregards the rights and jurisdiction of Turkish Cypriots.

When I mentioned the gas fields a few weeks ago I emphasised the positive aspects of the story.

Just before I went to press last week another news item made the headlines.
Judge George Kara, heading a panel of three judges, convicted former President of Israel Moshe Katsav of rape and multiple charges of sexual misconduct.

The Christian Science Monitor gave a telegraphic summary of the case's significance, "Women's rights activists hailed Moshe Katsav's rape conviction as a significant victory for women's rights in Israel, which has a tradition of military machismo."

BBC Online described it at greater length, "The unexpectedly definitive verdict marked the conclusion of a four-year nationwide drama which pitted the word of the former president – who held a mostly ceremonial but highly symbolic position – against that of three anonymous former female employees.
Former Israel President Moshe Katsav was convicted Thursday of raping an employee when he was a cabinet minister, the most serious criminal charges ever brought against a high-ranking official and a case that stunned the nation."

Women's rights activist Anat Saragusti also found cause to stress the military machismo. She said that Israel's workplace culture is influenced by office norms in the military.

Miriam Schler, director of the Tel Aviv rape crisis centre said, "It’s an historic and significant ruling… It will restore faith in the legal system that women can come forward. It's an important statement to women in the work place, and to men in places of power, that they can't abuse their office."

Calling his testimony "littered with lies,'' the judges rejected Katsav's claims that the charges were part of a conspiracy contrived by the plaintiffs. They ruled that the plaintiffs' testimonies proved to be honest and credible.

Unfortunately the Katsav case is but one of many instances of abuse of public office in Israel. Some of the offenders have been tried and sentenced, others are being investigated. Most of the cases involve bribery and corruption. Invariably they are reported in the foreign news media causing further embarrassment and tarnishing our national image. Fortunately there is a positive facet to this particular trial and the others as well.

The Washington Post and other papers in mentioning the case stressed that all Israelis are answerable to the law. "The verdict handed down in a case that had riveted the Israeli public was hailed as an affirmation of the rule of law and the rights of women, as well as a sign of changing norms in a society that for decades tended to condone sexual advances by powerful men in government and the military."

One small detail overlooked or not mentioned by the news media was the identity of the presiding judge in the case. Judge George Kara is an Israeli Christian Arab.

Were it not for its location Beil'in could be described as an unremarkable Palestinian village. However its close proximity to the Green Line and the security fence have caused it to become a focal point in the Palestinian struggle against the security fence. This is particularly acute in Beil'in because the fence cuts through the village's lands depriving the villagers access to some of their fields and olive groves. With support from various human rights groups the villagers appealed to the International Court of Justice and the Israeli Supreme Court. Six years ago the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel's security fence is a violation of international law. Just a week before the International Court's ruling the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the Israeli government had the right to construct the security fence, but that sections of it imposed undue hardships on Palestinians and should be re-routed. In 2005, the local council leader of Beil'in, Ahmed Issa Abdullah Yassin, hired Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard to represent the village in a petition to theIsraeli Supreme Court. On September 4, 2007, the Court ordered the government to change the route of the fence near Beil'in. Chief Justice Dorit Beinish wrote in her ruling: "We were not convinced that it is necessary for security-military reasons to retain the current route that passes on Beil'in’s lands." The Israeli Defence Ministry said it would respect the ruling.

On September 5, 2007, the Israeli Supreme Court legalised the Israeli settlement of Mattityahu East, a new neighbourhood of Modi'in Illit, built on what the Palestinians claim is Beil'in's land to the west of the security fence. Israel claims the disputed area is state land. There is no contradiction in the two rulings. The earlier ruling recognised the villagers' rights to some of the land they claim.

Since January 2005, the village has been organising weekly protests against the construction of the fence. The protests have attracted media attention and the participation of left-wing groups such as Gush Shalom, Anarchists Against the Wall and the International Solidarity Movement. The protests take the form of marches from the village to the security fence with the aim of halting construction and dismantling lengths of the fence already constructed.

In many instances the IDF intervenes to prevent protesters from approaching the fence. Sometimes there are violent clashes in which both protesters and soldiers have been very seriously injured. The weekly protests, which last a few minutes, regularly attract international activists who come to support the protesters.

The latest incident at Beil'in might well develop into another Mohamed al- Dura incident.

On 31 December 2010 Jawaher Abu Rahmah aged 36, a resident of Beil'in, died. According to the Palestinian account of the incident she was seriously injured in a tear gas attack during a demonstration against the security fence. She was admitted to hospital in Ramallah but didn't respond to treatment and died the following day. Her brother Bassem Abu Rahmah was killed two years ago when he was hit in the chest by a gas canister fired during one of the weekly demonstrations.

Avi Issacharoff and Anshel Pfeffer are two journalists who specialise in matters related to the West Bank and Gaza. They were a little too hasty in accepting the Palestinian narrative regarding Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s death. Blaming the type of tear gas used to disperse the demonstration at Beili’n they wrote, “The medical report filed in the Ramallah hospital where Abu Rahmah was taken shows that her death was caused by respiratory failure resulting from the inhalation of tear gas.”

Tovah Lazaroff and Yaakov Katz responded in the Jerusalem Post in an article claiming, “So-called Beil'in martyr may not have been at the protest. “

They quoted an anonymous senior IDF officer who claimed “The whole story is full of inconsistencies.” Furthermore, Lazaroff and Katz claim there are a number of contradicting entries in the medical report.
The following day Issacharoff and Pfeffer weren’t quite so sure what caused Jawaher Abu Rahmah’s death. In an article entitled “Has Israel lost the battle to convince the world it did not kill Beil'in activist?” they stated it’s reasonable to assume tear gas wasn’t the sole cause of death.

New York Times correspondent Isabel Kershner also quoted Israeli military sources that stated they had never heard of tear gas killing anyone in the open, and raised the possibility that she had some pre-existing ailment that, alone or compounded by the tear gas, caused her death.

No post mortem examination was performed so the exact cause of death has not been determined.

Yaakov Katz was struck by the martyr potential of Abu Rahma's death. In an op-ed piece published in the Jerusalem Post he pointed out that, "Some people have drawn comparisons between Abu Rahma and the Muhammad al-Dura affair. The main difference is that in 2000 the IDF did not overly challenge the Palestinian and international claims that its soldiers had killed the 12-year-old boy in Gaza. This likely contributed to al-Dura being turned into an icon still used today against Israel."

Seven years ago Atlantic Magazine correspondent James Fallow wrote,

"The image of a boy shot dead in his helpless father's arms during an Israeli confrontation with Palestinians has become the Pietà of the Arab world. Now a number of Israeli researchers are presenting persuasive evidence that the fatal shots could not have come from the Israeli soldiers known to have been involved in the confrontation. The evidence will not change Arab minds—but the episode offers an object lesson in the incendiary power of an icon"

That’s the bottom line!

Have a good weekend

Beni 6^th of January, 2011.