Israel Is Being Navigated Into Troubled Waters

Netanyahu: Lapid, Gantz surrendered to Hezbollah's blackmail

Israel National News

Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacked the agreement on the maritime border between Israel and Lebanon which was reached by Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Netanyahu said that "behind the backs of the citizens of Israel and the Knesset, Lapid and Gantz surrendered to Hezbollah's blackmail. They are transferring strategic assets of the State of Israel to Hezbollah in a liquidation sale."

According to Netanyahu, "Hezbollah will use the billions from the gas to arm itself with missiles and rockets against the citizens of Israel, and Iran will position itself against Rosh Hanikra and against Israel's gas reserves. This weak and amateur transitional government has no mandate to make such a dangerous decision in the dark, just days before the elections.''

The Qatari TV channel "Al-Arabi" reported that the negotiations for the signing of the maritime border agreement between Israel and Lebanon are in the final stages, and negotiations are now underway to coordinate the official signing event. According to the report, the signing of the agreement between the countries is expected on October 20 in the Naqoura area, near Rosh Hanikra.

Israel is being navigated into troubled waters

Israel Hayom

Prime Minister Yair Lapid has given away the farm, or more precisely, Israel's maritime territory, and what did the country receive in return? A slap in the face as Lebanon took everything that was gifted to them and moved the goalposts by disagreeing to prior agreed Israeli security and compensation requirements.

In response, Defense Minister Benny Ganz, who had also agreed to the terms of a bad deal, put the Israeli Defense Forces on high alert. Now Israeli decision-makers are preparing various potential military scenarios, over renewed tensions with Lebanon, with both defensive and offensive operations.

One of the altered Lebanese clauses demands that Total Energy – the French energy conglomerate that holds the license for both Israel's Karish rig and Lebanon's future drilling rig – buy a portion of the reservoir in the waters that Israel was about to surrender to Lebanon.

This is a Lebanese admission that the disputed waters are indeed, at least partly, Israeli sovereign maritime territory which Lapid and Ganz are about to gift to them in return for a low percentage of royalties if, or when, Lebanon is capable of drilling from a future rig.

Israel has informed the United States, acting as liaison negotiators in a deal, and whom many see as favoring Lebanon over Israel, that it opposes the Lebanese changes in what is considered by many in the country as an already bad deal.

United States officials, and perhaps people at the top of Israel's echelon, seem not to comprehend or are ignoring who are the decision-makers in Lebanon. They primarily include the leader of the Lebanese Parliament and the religious Iranian proxy Hezbollah who are Lebanese twins, joined at the hip by their Shiite connections.

To say that Hezbollah will not be a recipient of future natural gas revenue is delusional. I repeat, they are joined at the hip with Amal, and Amal and Hezbollah control what happens in Lebanon.

 If there is sufficient gas to make a Lebanese rig profitable then Amal-Hezbollah will be major recipient of the profits. And until or instead of drilling, Lebanon's new Mediterranean territory will be infinitely closer to Israel's Karish gas rig.