Yair Ravid/Sharing Israel’s Natural Gas Revenues With Lebanon Is A Mistake/يائير رافيد المعروف بأبو داود: مشاركة إسرائيل عائدات الغاز مع لبنان الذي يحتله حزب الله خطأ فادح

يائير رافيد المعروف بأبو داود: مشاركة إسرائيل عائدات الغاز مع لبنان الذي يحتله حزب الله خطأ فادح

Sharing Israel’s Natural Gas Revenues With Lebanon Is A Mistake
Yair Ravid/Media/23 July/2022

BYLINE: AS LONG AS THE NEIGHBOUROING COUNTRY IS CONTROLLED BY HEZBULLA AND IRAN, ANY REVENUE SHARED WITH IT WILL NOT REACH THE LEBANESE CITIZEN BUT WILL BE USED FOR WAR AGAINST ISRAEL.
During the recent visit of US president Biden to the region, Op-ed print praise in favor of promoting a shared distribution agreement of natural gas resources, produced from the sea between Israel and Lebanon, intensified in the local press and mainstream media.
Some writers, including experienced and well-known pundits, have even gone as far as suggesting that sharing natural gas revenue profits with Lebanon will ease the financial plight of the Lebanese citizens whose economy has collapsed and many of whom are struggling to survive. The same pundits even pinged their hope of a military calm between the two countries and a chance for future peace deals shall an agreement as such be pushed forward.
As for that theory, If I may, I will quote one of Israel’s most renowned satirical writers, the late Ephraim Kishon who once wrote “Everything I have written thus far is precise, eloquent and beautiful. The only problem is it has nothing to do with the truth”.
Given the current political situation in Lebanon, which is not about to change in coming years – shall Lebanon receive even partial revenue produced by the natural gas reserves that were discovered and built by Israel, none of it will reach the Lebanese citizens. The price of bread will not be reduced for the suffering population of Lebanon, nor will their daily gas price be reduced. Revenue received by a shared Gas production deal will make its way directly to Hezbollah, an internationally recognized terror organization, who will use the money to continue its war against Israel and Lebanese President Michel Aoun and his son-in-law Gebran Basil who are directly responsible for the country’s financial collapse. The chatter over the need to divide the natural gas resource revenues between the two countries can be heard and read in Lebanon as well. The unity of the opinion, on both sides of the border is not surprising. On the Lebanese side, there will always be support in accepting financial funds without having to invest anything in return. On the Israeli side, you will always find those who will be happy to give up and give in, in exchange for the elusive promise of a peace deal which is as possible as a foundationless castle in the air, given the current political situation in Lebanon. The distribution of gas profits between Israel and Lebanon would be appropriate and acceptable between neighboring countries who are living in peace with each other. That is not the case. Furthermore, as long as Lebanon is controlled by Iran through its proxy terror organization Hezbollah, no profit-distribution agreement or any other agreement will provide a barrier to war against Israel. A war, which is sure to happen, if Iran demands Hezbollah engages in one.
The interception of three unmanned aerial vehicles launched by Hezbollah earlier this month and aimed at the Israeli maritime “Karish” natural gas rig strengthens my opinion. It proves that Lebanon is run by various conflicting factors, each driven by its own agenda, and there is no correlation between the distribution of Israel’s natural gas resources and Iran’s war interests in the region. The issue of the distribution of gas profits from the sea must be the last clause in peace negotiations between Israel and Lebanon should such negotiations ever occur.
Yair Ravid is the former head of Mossad’s operational arm in Beirut, He also served as commander of the Northern Region in a unit that recruited and operated intelligence agents in Syria and in Lebanon, His book “Window to the backyard: The History of Israel-Lebanon relations – facts and illusions” is available on Amazon, kindle edition. OP-ED