Israel could buy Palestinian gas

A deal would reportedly provide 10% of Israel's annual gas needs

UK energy firm BG Group has confirmed it is in talks to agree a contract to supply Palestinian gas to Israel.

BG discovered the Gaza Marine field, which is controlled by the Palestinian Authority, off the coast of the Gaza Strip in 2000.

Any deal would represent a landmark in Middle Eastern relations, but BG said it would first require agreement between both governments.

Israel has previously vowed never to buy gas from its neighbour.

Lengthy negotiations

"We have been in negotiation with Israel for many, many months," said a BG spokeswoman.

The gas field is located off the coast of the Gaza Strip

"Most importantly, we need a bilateral agreement between both governments to get the go-ahead on this. We are working on that."

BG, previously part of British Gas, is seeking a 15-year contract.

According to press reports, BG is hoping to sign a $4bn (£2bn) deal that would see the Palestinian Authority receive $1bn in royalties.

Under the proposals, BG would transport gas from the Gaza Marine field through an undersea pipeline to the Israeli port of Ashkelon.

The field contains one trillion cubic feet of gas, and could reportedly supply 10% of Israel's annual needs.

If the project gets the go-ahead it would be a major boost to the economies in the Palestinian controlled territories.

Ongoing violence, especially in the Gaza Strip, has seen much economic activity grind to a halt, leaving the territories heavily reliant upon financial aid from overseas.

The outlines of what must be done are well known. They are based on United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), the Camp David Accord of 1978, the "Clinton Parameters(23-Dec-00) leading to the tentative Taba Agreement to disagree," the Arab League initiative of 2002, and roadmap proposed by the Quartet (UN, US, EU, and Russia) in 2003.

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Does anyone expect The Poodle to have enough weight to knock heads together in the Middle East?

Ahmadinejad Is Not Helpful

Ayaan Hirsi Ali asks of Muslims Why Deny the Holocaust?

Could the answer be as simple as it is horrifying: For generations, the leaders of these so-called Muslim countries have been spoon-feeding their populations a constant diet of propaganda similar to the one that generations of Germans (and other Europeans) were fed — that Jews are vermin and should be dealt with as such? In Europe, the logical conclusion was the Holocaust. If Ahmadinejad has his way, he shall not want for compliant Muslims ready to act on his wish.

The world needs to be informed again and again about the Holocaust — not only in the interest of the Jews who survived and their offspring but in the interest of humanity.

What's a Reasonable Settlement?

For the purposes of discussion, here's what I think is reasonable:

1. The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
2. No right of return for Arabs to Israeli lands within lines of June 4, 1967.
3. Both parties consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.
4. Arab neighbors establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.
5. The government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.
6. Invites the international community and all countries and organisations to support this initiative.

Parallel negotiations should be engaged simultaneously covering the terms for full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied in the Syrian Golan Heights, as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

In a very real sense, of course, it doesn't matter a whit what anyone agrees to on the internet. It's all about getting the principals to give up their principles for the benefit of their children and grand children.

Borrowed from the 2002 Saudi Proposal

An Anti-Shi'ia Israeli Initiative?

Are the Israelis thinkking of cozying up to the Sunnis & Wahabbis?

Defense Minister Amir Peretz says the 2002 Saudi initiative must serve as basis for talks with Palestinians.

Haaretz

Intifada History

• The first Palestinian intifada began in December 1987 after an Israeli lorry ran into and killed four Palestinians.
  
  The campaign of civil disobedience and rioting by Palestinians followed that has been credited with not only bringing about a sense of national pride, but of creating the conditions for the 1993 Oslo peace agreement with Israel.


• The second intifada was sparked in 2000 following the visit of Ariel Sharon, then Israeli opposition leader, to the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount, which angered Palestinians already frustrated with the lack of the progress in peace talks.
  
  The uprising, which has still not officially ended, was marked by large scale Israeli military incursions into the West Bank and Gaza resulting in a large number of deaths and the use of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel.
  
  At least 4,286 Palestinians have been killed since the second intifada began, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The Israeli human rights group, B'Tselem, says 1,011 Israelis had been killed up until the end of October 2006.