Lebanon Aims to Steal Israel's Maritime Gas Fields

Daniel F opined, "Now that the Jews have done the heavy lifting and discovered enormous natural gas reserves in Israel’s territorial waters, there is a sudden demand by their enemies to finally create “borders” in those areas at Israel's expense. This is the perfect metaphor for the Arabs’ abrupt yearning for “Palestine” in 1967 after 2000 years of Jewish exile and 1700 years of Arab/Muslim neglect. Indeed, all history from ancient Rome to the present shows the same “coincidence.” The Nations’ claims against the Land of Israel become more or less intense in direct relation to the presence, activities and prosperity of Jews there."

Next Flashpoint in Mideast Could Be Gas Fields Off Mediterranean Coast Benny Avni, NY Sun

UNITED NATIONS – The next flashpoint in the Middle East could be the gas fields off Israel's Mediterranean coast, where the discovery of large cashes of natural gas is raising homes that Israel could soon become energy-self-sufficient but where a dispute with Lebanon could be ignited.

The Iran-influenced Beirut government is threatening to defend its maritime “rights” and is complaining about Israel’s explorations. Lebanon’s appeals for international intervention begun last summer, immediately after Israel’s off shore gas explorations showed signs of positive results. Now that years of exploration have yielded what some energy experts estimate to be the world’s largest deepwater gas discovery in a decade, Beirut is raising the tone of its demands.

Lebanon’s foreign minister, Ali Shami, in a letter to Secretary General Ban, demanded the United Nations assure that “Israel does not exploit Lebanon’s marine and oil wealth, which lies within its exclusive economic zone.” Last June a Shiite politician with ties to Hezbollah, Nabih Berri, speaker of the parliament at Beirut, asserted that Israel’s newly-discovered gas was actually found in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

The United Nations is to date unwilling to intervene, but today it added to the confusion by saying Israel “unilaterally” delineated its maritime border with Lebanon. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky also said that Mr. Shami’s letter has not yet arrived here. But, as is often the case, the contents of letters addressed to U.N. entities are released to the press before they actually get to Turtle Bay.

Will the World End? Part 3 of 9

"We walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death without protection." The military/industrial complex has no mercy for anyone and they run the country. War is but another tool in the imperialist grab bag.
Their trick is to put a nation into debt and then collect interest for hundreds of years. Haiti has been in the red since 1811. Government as we know it is theft. It's justification for existence is a set of false promises that fail any real world test. How many leaders constantly see the light at the end of the tunnel? Even the government employees lie to one another.
What leader has lowered his nuclear weapons stock?
At 10 a.m. we will learn that nuclear war has been averted. At 2 p.m. the bombs will begin to fly.

McCain is Bush

The Clintons say that McCain has many moderate qualities that separate him from the Bush fiasco. Have Hillary and Bill taken leave of their senses?

“On the foreign policy issues that are most consequential, McCain is George Bush. They pay lip service to the same pretty concepts of internationalism and democracy in order to justify endless militarism, occupation and war. They believe the "transcendent" obligation of America is to use its military force and other resources to re-make the world in our image. The Middle East is our personal playground and controlling it will consume most of our attention and energy. We should work cooperatively with other countries whenever they are willing to support our foreign adventures.

With regard to the most complex and dangerous conflicts, they even sound almost exactly alike in their simple-minded belligerence. Here was Bush's "solution" to the Israel/Hezbollah war, spat out between food bites to Tony Blair:

What they really need to do is to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over.

And here was McCain's equally insightful solution to the civil war in Iraq:

One of the things I would do if I were President would be to sit the Shiites and the Sunnis down and say, "Stop the bullshit."

The American Emperor issues moronic dictates to the world's primitive peoples, and they obey -- just as has happened for the last eight years -- and thousands-year old religious and ethnic conflicts vanish and freedom and Western democracy sprout magically in their place. As Matt Welch, author of McCain: The Myth of a Maverick, said in a February speech at the Cato Institute:

[McCain's] whole career, his life, his training, his family background has been to be a member of . . . the Imperial Class; [he's] motivated by an inspiring trust of America's governance of the world; [and] he would be the most imperial-oriented President, most militaristic President, since Teddy Roosevelt, at least.”

Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com

Note: What have the Republicans got on the Clintons?