160 THE BIGGER PICTURE.

Huge oil and gas fields have recently been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean Sea over the territorial waters of Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus and of course GAZA. These  Gas fields hold about 122 cubic feet of gas, plus the a potential of 1.6 barrels of oil. Needless to say that Israel wants its oil, now that Israel faces an upcoming energy security nightmare after cheap oil form Egypt's virtually exhausted oil fields are finished. Even Tony Blair came up with a brilliant plan for "developing" the Gaza gas fields via an agreement between British Gas and the Palestinian Authority, totally excluding Gaza.. The way Gaza is kept as a concentration camp, subjected to non stop collective punishments, may be revolting. But than it must be added the key economic component: by all available means Gaza must be prevented from accessing the Marine-1 and Marine - 2 gas fields. These will be gobbled up by Israel. Israel lords over all Palestinian natural resources - land, water and energy. So here is the "secret" of  Operation Protective Edge: the possibility that Palestinians could have their own gas generated wealth is an absolute red line. And even the European Union is in it for it, as it will make Europe less dependent on Russian gas.

159 About origins

Some historical questions were recently raised by correspondents about the origins of the Jewish people and their "return to the Promised Land". However the overwhelming majority of immigrants to Palestine after WW2  are genetically and ethnically of Russian/East European origin (e.g. Netanyahu's family name before 1910 was Mileikowski  from Belarus)  There is a consensus amongst secular historians that Jews and Palestinians were both Canaanites who are believed to have embraced the 'one God religion' between 1000 and 700 BC, the first monotheist religion.  It was during the rule of  King Joshua that Judaism became the overall dominant religion.  The rapid emergence and acceptance of Islam took place between 600 and 800 AD and quickly expanded across the entire Middle  East. From 700 AD Islam expanded further westward across North Africa as far as the southern half of Spain (Sephardi Jews) and eastward into southern Russia. Judaism, although now a minority religion still coexisted peacefully with Islam. The Jews who had joined the Islamic armies became proselytizers for the Jewish religion. The King of Khazaria (southern Russia) converted to Judaism in 740 AD and so did his subjects. The two religions coexisted peacefully until the beginning of the 20th century. After WW2   Jewish people from the concentration camps were en mass transported to Palestine. In 1947 America was prepared to absorb 400,000 Holocaust survivors (the Straton Bill) but the bill was defeated by the Jewish lobby, who wanted manpower for their new state. European Jews have always preferred America as their 'chosen country' and few American Jews are willing to swap America for Israel.



 

158 CROSSTALK

http://rt.com/shows/crosstalk/174856-plane-mh17-investigation-war/


Double click on the link and another URL the right one appears. Be patient. Really worthwhile watching.

157 WHO'S DONE IT ?

In the present manufactured anti Russia hysteria, Chris Trotter (Press 22/07) stands out as a beacon of reason and logic. That MH17 was downed by a missile is beyond reasonable doubt. But since the in February re-kindled Cold War following the by US/NATO engineered violent coup detat in Kiev, Russia has been subjected to severe economic sanctions and an intense vilification campaign. It is hard to believe that Russia would offer the west such an opportune casu beli.  So the climate was already ripe to accuse Russia of this senseless act. But what has Russia got to gain and who benefited from this despicable crime? The Kiev regime for months now has been shelling and bombarding from the air several cities at an unprecedented scale, causing hundreds and thousands of refugees to flee over the border into Russia. The separatists in the past have indeed downed several planes without the use of surface to air missiles designed for use at high altitudes, the so called Buk, which are too easy to detect and require highly specialized trained crews. They did not need them since the planes they successfully shot down were within reach of shoulder mounted rocket launchers or what ever else they were using.  So what really happened depends entirely on the conversations that took place between the ill-fated plane's crew and Kiev air traffic control who, in my view deliberately failed to divert the plane to a safe flight corridor.. Kiev refuses to release these recordings. It has now also come to light that the plane for some time was shadowed by a Ukraine fighter jet equipped with missiles,  at a distance of three to four kms. The black boxes have now been handed over by the separatists in good order  to the Malaysian authorities. If they would have been guilty of the crime they would most certainly have hidden them or have tampered with  them.



 

156 "THE GATEKEEPERS"

Highly recommended and now available in the Christchurch libraries.

For the first time ever, six former heads of Israel's secret service tell their story.
Israel's crushing victory over its neighbours during the Six Day War in 1967 left it in control of a vast, hostile population living under Occupation. Dealing with that population-in times of calm and times of violent uprising-was the responsibility of Israel's secret service agency, Shin Bet.

The Gatekeepers offers a riveting and intimate insight into the Israeli-Palestine conflict told by the six former heads of Shin Bet. In a style reminiscent of the Fog of War, their confessions of torture and terrorism, arrests and assassinations are illustrated with archival footage and chilling animations. These offer a window into the moral dilemmas they faced as they unfolded. The citizens they swore to protect against terrorism may have been safer as a result of their actions, but was the country any closer to peace? Theirs is the ultimate cautionary tale of what happens to people and nations alike when they try to answer violence with violence.

Footnote: Shin Bet reminds me of the Hitlers 'Gestapo' (Geheime Statz Polizei) during World War 2



 

154 CrossTalk: Target-Gaza