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Israel, Iran, energy, and war fever

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Obama interferes in Israeli elections. Does he also use taxpayer money to pay for it?

Israel is now getting ready, not only to act against Iran, but also to fend off Iran’s friends. History, especially of the Holocaust, drives them more than anything else. But the Egyptians might have brought matters to a head without thinking, when they canceled an energy deal with Israel.

Israel calls up troops

Members of the Israel Defense Forces on the Golan Heights

Two Tzahal (Israel Defense Force) soldiers walk casually on the Golan Heights.

Recently the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (Tzahal), Rav Aluf Benny Gantz, demanded and got from the Knesset the authority to call up 22 battalions of reservists. Earlier this week he called up six of them. Today, WND‘s G2 Bulletin said where Gantz put them. He ordered “most” of them to the Camp David Treaty Line between the Sinai and the Negev, and sent the rest to the Golan Heights, southwest of Damascus.

The Golan Heights, especially the bluff that overlooks Damascus, has always been thick with Tzahal. Last year, they repulsed several Syrian civilians who tried to knock down the fence and cross the 1973 armistice line. But the Tzahal haven’t invested the Negev as heavily. While Hosni Mubarak ran Egypt, the Sinai-Negev border stayed quiet. Now Egypt is in turmoil. A temporary military council runs Egypt now. That council has pulled Egyptian troops back deep into the Sinai. This has left Bedouin and Al-Qa’ida groups free to infiltrate the border and kill and maim Israelis on the Israel side.

So on its face, the Tzahal has good reason to reinforce the Negev. But the reasons might go further than worrying about the Sinai becoming lawless.

Egypt reneges on a deal

The Orot Rabin power station, south of Caesaria Maritima. Israel’s oil might make this obsolete.

The Orot Rabin power station, south of Caesaria Maritima. Israel’s oil might make this obsolete. Photo: CNAV

Two weeks ago, an Egyptian company canceled a 20-year deal to sell natural gas to Israel. That deal still had 13 years to run. But terrorists groups have blown up the Egypt-Israel gas pipeline fourteen times since the Arab Spring. Now the Egyptians say that Israel has failed to pay for its natural gas for four months running. Israeli officials deny not paying its bill.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted, on the day after Egypt turned off the gas, that Egypt acted out of nothing more than business reasons. But other officials spoke vaguely of bad “implications” for the Camp David Treaty. They probably mean that some candidates for President of Egypt have promised to break that treaty to get votes. Officials at the Israeli company that bought the gas said that they were thinking of suing the Egyptians or pressing them in some other way.

That was two weeks ago. No one has said a word since.

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Israel was getting 40 percent of its natural gas through this pipeline. The rest, presumably, comes from a vast new natural gas field in the northeastern Mediterranean that Israel found back in the winter of 2010. Hank Pellisier of the World Future Society suggested in October of 2010 that Israel would have plenty of gas for its own needs and perhaps even enough to export to Greece or Turkey. That is, if its navy could protect those fields from attack.

The Orot Rabin plant in Hadera, along the Coastal Road, can convert between coal and oil. Israel now burns coal there, coal that it buys from Australia and South Africa. (Israel also has three other power plants that burn coal.)

Finally, the Texas-based Zion Oil and Gas Company has prospected in northern Israel and the Jordan Valley for years. Thus far, they have yet to strike oil.

G2 Bulletin speculates that Israel might want to recapture the Sinai to regain control of its oil wells. The Camp David Treaty grants Israel the right of first refusal on oil from those wells. Egypt agreed to this to get the Sinai back. (Israel captured it in the first days of the Six-day War.) But now Egypt has canceled the gas deal, Will they cancel the oil deal next?

But Israel has another, more pressing reason for concern: Iran.

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The Iran bomb

The Islamic Republic of Iran has never made a secret of its hatred of Israel or its contempt for diplomatic norms. “Iran won’t play the international-relations game,” said an Army reserve major in 1980, during the “Iran Hostage Crisis.” For years, Iran’s figurehead President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has vowed to “wipe Israel off the map.” The real powers-that-be in Iran, the ayatollahs, have never once censured him for talking that way.

Dwight Kehoe of Tea Party Advocacy Tracking Hub (TPATH) said today that  the Jewish state will not wait for the Iranians to fire a missile at them, or to give a bomb to someone else to do the same thing. They will strike Iran, and soon. (Arnaud de Borchgrave said earlier that Netanyahu feels that the American election campaign is the perfect time to strike. In other words, he dares putative President Barack H. Obama to criticize his country for trying to stop another Holocaust.)

Kehoe cites an ex-Marine officer who prefers to stay nameless. This source suggests that Israeli planes will first attack air bases and harbors, to destroy Iran’s ability to answer Israel directly. Then Israel will attack the nuclear laboratories and other development sites. Nor would planes be the only weapons. Commentator Mike Evans said three days ago that the Tzahal navy got a new Dolphin-class submarine, its fourth, from the Germans.

Everyone in Israel knows that the rockets will fly as soon as their own planes take off. That’s why Rav Aluf Gantz wants as many troops as possible, ready to secure all borders, drive deep into the Sinai, and even retake Gaza, at least long enough to destroy Gazan rocket stockpiles and launchers. He might also have to drive into southern Lebanon. Israel has never liked to occupy southern Lebanon for long.

Kehoe suggested that “another oil-producing kingdom, notorious for its fear of Iran,” might join Israel as a co-belligerent in the war to come. The most likely candidate is Saudi Arabia.

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CNAV has learned independently that the Tzahal were on more maneuvers than usual, as far back as January of 2012. Could this be why?

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Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.

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Tonto USA

I’m angry. I’ve been angry since well before 9/11. I got mad when the islamic scum blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon years ago. I knew we were at war with this plague on humanity since then…..and it’s gotten worse. We haven’t killed enough of them yet for them to get the idea. We maybe need to kill every man, woman, child, dog, cat, canary, and stomp the goldfish of enough of these idiots….and continue to do so without mercy….until every muslim in the world is dead….or they decide to give up islam and become “flower children” or something very innocuous. They have been getting away with their BS for 1400 years….waging guerrilla war on the world….striking and hiding….but always war, war, war. It actually NEVER stops for them…..and they need to pay for the last 1400 years they have subjected themselves on the rest of us. Kill them or convert them…then kill them. At least the ones converted will see God instead of the devil.

Fergus Mason

Maybe you missed this, but the article is about Israel planning to attack the muslims.

Tonto USA

Good call Dude…..and the muz got it coming. What I don’t want to see is the Israelis backing down or stopping the slaughter too soon. The muz need the harshest lesson possible….something so horrifying that they finally get the idea that there ain’t no islamic supermen….just dead bodies. What those clowns have been fed forever is that islam cannot fail….even though islam has fed backwardness, failure and poverty for 1400 years……and then kept ignorant of what the rest of the world really is. They need a hard lesson in the language they understand best.

Nathaniel Roubideaux

How odd that Mr. Hurlbut has censored several of my posts yet he lets this kind of odious violent hate speech through.

Fergus Mason

As I understand it Terry’s religious beliefs make him favourably inclined to a huge, destructive war in the Middle East, as he thinks it will be a sign of Jesus returning. Therefore to him Tonto’s comments are a sign of enthusiasm at a glorious forthcoming event, instead of the demented ravings of a violent maniac.

This is probably also why he’s so blasé about the idea of an Israeli invasion of the Sinai, as he thinks that God will allow Israel to get away with it. However this time round the world won’t let them get away with it; the consequences of an unprovoked attack on Egypt would be disastrous for Israel.

Fergus Mason

You’re insane.

AlexM

“They need a hard lesson in the language they understand best.”

What you need is a history lesson. The Muslims were years ahead in the arts and sciences than Christian Europe for several centuries, up until the Mongol invasion leveled Baghdad. And one would find it hard to argue with the fact that it was the Christians, not the Muslims, who were the antagonists during the Crusades.

The majority of Israelis favor peace with the Palestinians. And the majority of Palestinians favor peace with the Israelis. Its the religious nutjobs on both sides (more so the Hamas/Muslim terrorists, but also to a lesser extent the ultra-orthodox Jews) who keep escalating things. This is a feeling that is held not only by the majority of Israelis and Palestinians, but also prime ministers, such as Ehud Olmert.

You mention God and the Devil in your post, are you a Christian? I was unaware that Jesus preached genocide (I thought that all that crazy stuff was reserved for the Old Testament). But perhaps I missed something.

Tonto USA

You’re kidding right? Muz conquered areas that had the knowledge and stole it. Even the koran is a corrupted version of several other religious texts mixed with dumba$$ arab superstitions. All their vaunted knowledge was taken from scholars that were told to convert or die. Not much in original thought was actually forthcoming from islam itself. In fact, it has provebn to be the most repressive society the world has ever seen.
Insanity is actually simply a point of view. Dead people don’t attack other people is all I’m actually saying. How to traet a cancer or a mad dog? Kill it.
As far as living with fakestinians? How has that worked out for the last 60 years? Idiots!

Fergus Mason

The Palestinians probably have some opinions on what it’s been like living with the Israelis since they turned up 70 years ago.

Fergus Mason

“The first Zionist pioneers came and bought the land from absentee Turkish landlords”

Well, they bought SOME of it. However the vast majority of the land in 1948 – close to 90% – was not Jewish-owned. Much of this was subsequently seized by the Israeli state.

“After that, the Arabs came to work.”

Nope. The majority of the population were Arabs until Haganah and (most notoriously) the terrorist groups started attacking them. In 1920 Jews made up around 10% of the population. By 1948 that had risen to 32%. They were a minority who expelled or otherwise removed the bulk of the majority group.

“Husseini’s cousin, Yasser Arafat.”

Except Yasser Arafat wasn’t Husseini’s cousin.

Fergus Mason

No, I wouldn’t trust the PA on the subject; they’re no more of an impartial source than the Israelis are. The information comes from Mandate records and the UN mission on partition. That’s the thing about my version of history, you see: I like it to bear some resemblance to the facts.

Jews were a minority in Palestine until the War of Independence. Until well into the 20th century they were a very small minority indeed. And there’s no disputing that Israel seized a great deal of land from its Arab owners in 1948 and is refusing to give it back.

AlexM

Fergus, very little of the land was owned by Arabs prior to the arrival of Jews. The land was controlled by the Ottomans, and most non-Turkish land under Ottoman rule was owned by the state. Large groups of Jews had been moving to Palestine since the 1600s, with very large migrations all throughout the 18th and 19th century.

That said, the “reclaiming the land” argument doesn’t work. Do the Native Americans have the right to “retake their land” from us in the U.S.? Obviously not, and thats only after a couple hundred years (compared to a thousand for Jews). But the Jews that moved to Palestine bought land and settled there legally, at least until 1947 (when things start getting complicated).

Tonto, who did the Muslims steal that from? Exempting the Byzantines, the Europeans were an absolutely backward society from the fall of the Roman Empire until the Renaissance. Yes, the Koran demands that they go and kill people. The Bible also demands that Christians and Jews go and kill people. Thats why its a bad idea to follow a book written three thousand years ago by goat herders wandering the desert. Most Christians and Muslims dont follow their religious text to the letter. If what you said was true, we’d be fighting against an army of over a billion Muslims who were all hell-bent on killing all of us.

Tonto USA

Absolutely Biblical ain’t it?

AlexM

So did the Bible command the Israelites to kill those people or not? And the Israelites didn’t perform child sacrifices, but they sacrificed animals and sold children into slavery and married their own brothers and sisters. Pretty “disgusting customs” if you ask me.

My point was it doesn’t matter what the Bible says, because it was written by a bunch of desert-wandering goat herders 3000 years ago who didn’t know that the Earth wasn’t flat. Things can’t be taken literally. Same goes for the Koran. Granted, the crazy Muslims have turned out to be considerably more crazy than the crazy Christians or the crazy Jews. But they aren’t all out to kill us.

Tonto USA

So Alex….are you one of those race-baiting trolls from a “progressive” background that I’ve heard about but rarely encountered? Pretty hate filled stuff you got going on here. Think I don’t need to put up wih that particular brand of ignorance.

Fergus Mason

“evidence for which abounds”

But Terry, there isn’t any evidence, and despite his claims Walt Brown isn’t willing to debate his hypothesis.

Fergus Mason

Sure I have. I offered Walt Brown all the information he wanted as soon as he assured me he wouldn’t hand it around, and since then I haven’t heard a word from him in six months.

AlexM

“So Alex….are you one of those race-baiting trolls from a “progressive” background that I’ve heard about but rarely encountered? Pretty hate filled stuff you got going on here.”

Hate filled? Im not the one the one calling for ethnic and cultural genocide against the the Earth’s Muslim population (which numbers over a billion people).

Tonto USA

Actually, pragmatic is more like it. I can hardly think of anything more irritating than rockets, mortars, artillery and suicide attacks at random over a 60+ year period to make one a bit “testy”. Obviously, you’ve never experienced combat (except from Mom’s basement in your undershorts and heavy metal T, plinking away on your garage sale computer)so you’ve never acquired the attitude that the best defence is an excellent offence (A Sun Tzu axiom). The threat that Israel has been facing over the years is becoming deadlier all the time…..fueled by the dollars we all spend on the fuel that gets some of us back and forth to work. At some point one must make a decision and prepare to make a move. Take a serious look at it…..Israel has no plan to attack Egypt….just covering that avenue of attack from them if/when Israel does attack Iran…In my opinion, attacking Iran is simply prudence. Those whackos have more than made their intentions clear. Troops on the Golan and at the Sinai is simple CYA against the expected retalliation, and undoubtedly not even close to the real story of where deployments for such contingencies are happening. I don’t think Israel is planning a “last stand” or “the final battle” like on your video games, I think they are pre-empting that in hope of avoiding that “Last Battle”…..and they better do it thoroughly and very earnestly. Blasting Iran back to the stone age as a “visual aid” to the rest of those idiots might prove to be motivational.
And please don’t call me names….it ain’t nice.

Fergus Mason

The best way to avoid continuous attacks from your neighbours is to not move into that neighbourhood in the first place. However Israel is there now and has to come to some sort of arrangement to end the fighting. That arrangement is going to require the setting up of a fully independent and viable Palestinian state.

It is not going to involve continued attacks on any country that offends them. So far Israel has launched unprovoked attacks on the territory or armed forces of Iraq, Norway, Greece, France, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Lebanon, Syria and the USA, among others. It hasn’t brought peace; far from it, in fact – it’s just tightened the cycle of retaliation and counter-retaliation. Attacking Iran isn’t going to bring peace either; it would just bring on more condemnation and more retaliatory attacks. At some point Israel has to stop attacking people and start talking, because the world is running out of patience with them.

And yes, you’re insane. You’re advocating religious genocide. You are exactly as bad as Islamic Jihad.

Tonto USA

Nope, I couldn’t hold a candle to islamics when it comes to murder, rape and destruction. Since 9/11/2001, there have been 18,854 islamic attacks on the world….that is @1714 per year and about 34 per week. They kill thousands and thousands! They maim even more. Slavery has never stopped there. And….this stuff has be constant, continuous, and ongoing for 1400 years. The koran DEMANDS that they murder and enslave others. What I advocate is simply taking them on using their own tactics….and see how they like it. Fergy, you really need to get your sensory housing group out of your waste chute and smell the coffee instead of all that methane.

[…] Israel, Iran, energy, and war fever […]

[…] Authorized Rav Aluf Benny Ganz, the chief of staff of the Defensive Armies of Israel, to call up as many as 22 reserve battalions. […]

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