The Natural Gas

Agreements Between Israel,

Egypt and Jordan, and the

July 2014 Gaza War

Iakovos Alhadeff

The following Financial Times article of 21st Mai 2014,

reported that Israel was very close to signing agreements

with Egypt and Jordan for exporting Israeli natural gas to

these countries, from Leviathan, Israel's largest natural

gas field.

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/02ea38aa-e0e2-11e3-a934-

00144feabdc0.html?siteedition=intl

At the following article of Haaretz, which is as you can

see at the following Wikipedia link, Israel’s oldest

newspaper, and its English version is published with the

New York Times,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haaretz

it was reported on 30 June 2014 that Israel did finally

sign an agreement to export to Egypt 30 billion dollars of

natural gas in the next 15 years. That is 2 billion dollars

of natural gas each year, and it amounts to 20% of

Leviathan’s capacity.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.601980

At the following article of the Times of Israel, an

electronic newspaper that is published in 3 languages, it

was reported on 3 September 2014, that Israel did finally

sign an agreement to export to Jordan 15 billion dollars of

natural gas in the next 15 years.

http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-signs-15-billion-gas-

deal-with-jordan/

What happened in the time between the Financial Times

article on 21 Mai 2014, which reported that Israel was

close to signing the agreements and the Haaretz article

on 30 June, which reported the actual 30 billion dollar

agreement between Egypt and Israel?

Well what happened is that the 3 Israeli teenagers were

abducted by Hamas on 12 June 2014, as you can read at

the first line of the following Wikipedia link, in section

“Immediate Events”.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel

%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict#Immediate_events

At the first paragraph of the following Wikipedia link, you

can read that on 7 July 2014, one week after the

agreement between Israel and Egypt, Hamas took

responsibility for the teenagers’ abductions and at the

same time it launched 40 rockets to Israel. One day later,

on the 8 July 2014, the Israeli army entered Gaza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Israel

%E2%80%93Gaza_conflict

It is well known that Hamas is funded by Qatar. Hamas

won the elections in 2006 by providing financial help to

the people of Gaza. In a sense Qatar bought a military

camp at the Israeli borders. Qatar is the 3rd richest

country in the world in terms of proven natural gas

reserves, after Russia and Iran, and could have easlily

provided the natural gas to Egypt and Jordan instead.

One of the main reasons that Qatar funded and

wholeheartedly supported  the Muslim Brootherhood

candidate in Egypt, Muhammad Morsi, is that if Morsi

was in power he would have never made a deal with

Israel, since the Muslim Brotherhood is supported by

Qatar.

At the following Wikipedia link, section ‘Aftermath’, 2-3

lines before the end of the section, where the

consequences of the Arab Spring on the Egypt-Israel

1978 Peace Agreement are examined, you can read that

the deputy chief of the Muslim Brotherhood said that the

Brotherhood does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egypt

%E2%80%93Israel_Peace_Treaty#Aftermath

At the following BBC article you can read how much

Qatar supported the Muslim Brotherhood and its

candidate Morsi. In the 6th and 7th paragraph you can

read that Qatar did not give all that money for nothing,

but instead to make sure that Egypt would buy natural

gas from Qatar. I copy these two paragraphs.

“....But this was not a charitable giveaway. It was in the

nature of an investment. A Qatari economist told the BBC:

"We couldn't stand by and let Egypt collapse", but the

billions came with an expectation - "I'll give you the

money, show me the outcome," he said.

The Qataris had already secured a lucrative deal to sell

their gas to the Egyptians and they were proposing to

heavily invest in the redevelopment of the Suez Canal...”.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-23185441

Many socialists that are financed by Qatar say that the

Brotherhood was democratically elected. As you can read

in the 3rd paragraph of the following Wikipedia link, as

soon as he was elected, Morsi started changing the law to

rule as a dictator. I copy from the link.

“…As president, Morsi granted himself unlimited powers

and the power to legislate without judicial oversight or

review of his acts….”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Morsi

Moreover you can read at the following Haaretz article

that the Israelis have agreed to sell to the Palestinian

Authority in West Bank 1.2 billion dollar in natural gas.

But this is a small amount compared to the 45 billion

dollar deals with Egypt and Jordan, and Qatar would have

not probably minded. As you can see the deal was singed

in January 2014 and there was no war in Gaza. It was

before the agreements with Egypt and Jordan that the

war broke out. Nobody starts a war for 1.2 billion dollars.

http://www.haaretz.com/business/1.567216