“Israel’s” attempts to impose its will on Lebanon and exploit the natural resources of the Karish field will result in a resounding failure. Knowing this, will the Zionist regime in “Tel Aviv” push this case to the brink of war as its only strategy?
On June 5, Lebanese President, Michel Aoun, warned “Tel Aviv” that its planned activity in the disputed maritime border area represents “a provocation and an aggressive action”. This warning was issued by the Lebanese leadership following the incursion of a Greek-owned ship into the area where the resource-rich Karish field lies.
In Western media, the Karish field has been portrayed as “West of Haifa”, which is the official Israeli description of the oil and gas-rich site. In reality, this description of the Karish field is geographically incorrect, and it is clear to see that the field is further north of the Israeli-occupied city of Haifa. Since October 2020, “Tel Aviv” and Beirut have entered in and out of negotiations, via a US intermediary, over the exact demarcation of the maritime border between Lebanon and the settler-colonial regime occupying Palestine. “Israel” already exploits the resources of all the other oil and gas fields, often called the Leviathan fields, but had for long refrained from exploring the natural resources of the lone field claimed to be part of Lebanese territory.
The position of the Lebanese government had been to hold back on exploring these resources in the Karish field, due to the failure to reach an agreement on maritime borders, which is what “Israel” was believed to have accepted as the status quo also. Yet, in the past week “Tel Aviv” provoked not only the Lebanese State, but also the Lebanese people, by not only sending a ship into the disputed area but also claiming that where the ship entered was “Israel’s” exclusive economic zone.
“Israel” does not need the resources at Karish field; this issue is not nearly as contentious as disputes over land territory in places like the occupied Golan Heights, the West Bank, and Al-Quds. On the other hand, Lebanon is suffering from a crushing economic crisis and a political crisis, in addition to the country being squeezed by outside powers too. The Karish field is a potential treasure trove for Lebanon, with the ability to lift the country out of an economic meltdown and electricity shortages.
For “Israel”, claiming the resources of the Karish field is not a life or death matter in economic terms, but militarily, this is a whole other issue. In response to Israeli provocations, the Deputy Secretary General of Lebanese Hezbollah stated that the Resistance is ready to use force to prevent “Israel” from looting the resources of the field. In response, “Tel Aviv” announced it was prepared to defend the ship, reportedly poised to begin extraction efforts within 3 months’ time.
Then, on Wednesday, Hezbollah’s Secretary General, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, gave a televised speech in which he assured the Karish field was just as valuable to liberate as Lebanese territory in the past, urging the Lebanese people to mobilize against the provocation. Nasrallah stated that the Resistance “has the capacity to prevent the enemy from beginning to extract from Karish, and all the enemy’s actions will not be able to protect this ship.” Despite the Israeli preparations, military information has been leaked about “Israel’s” inability to protect the ship from Hezbollah.
The reality here is that “Israel” is out of its depth, as it knows that it will never be able to get away with extracting the oil and gas from the Karish field and that the threats from Hezbollah alone are already making this a much more costly endeavor for them. What it is attempting to do now is push the envelope; they want to see how far they can get without the situation deteriorating into a full-blown war.
“Tel Aviv” knows that it has the backing of Washington on the issue of resources – specifically the Karish field – and that the United States is not allowing either Lebanon or Syria to benefit from their own resources. The Israeli military has also been attempting to intimidate the Lebanese Civil Defense along the land border with Lebanon, in an attempted show of force, even using its tanks to undergo small incursions into south Lebanon. The US support puts the Israelis in a strong negotiating position, yet this American backing will not be able to outweigh the strength of the Lebanese resistance’s arms.
Immediately after the Hezbollah threats over “Israel’s” attempts to try and get away with stealing the resources of the Karish fields, “Israel” then turned to its usual punching bag, Syria. The most recent Israeli airstrikes, launched unprovoked yet again, targeted the Damascus International Airport, destroying both the civilian and military runways. The claim, aired on Israeli television, was that “Tel Aviv” was seeking to send a message to Iran over what it claims have been attempts to smuggle weapon parts to Hezbollah.
From aerial photographs provided of the Damascus international airport, the damage clearly shows that the Israeli attack did not hit any military equipment. This can be easily observed as there are no scorch marks to suggest a secondary explosion occurred anywhere, so the Israeli airstrikes did not actually take out weapons at the airport itself.
Instead, the attack resulted in flight suspension. The airport was declared non-operational, and all flights have been diverted to the city of Aleppo. In addition to there being no proof that “Israel” was targeting Iranian weapon parts or sending a message to Syria, Tehran, and Hezbollah regarding weapons transfers, logic-based evidence would seem to point in a different direction. It would be more comprehensible to believe that “Israel” lashed out at Syria to undermine the Syrian people’s feeling of general safety, in addition to providing an opportunity in order to prove to the Israeli public that they are responding in a strong manner to the threats of Hezbollah. If “Israel” truly struck the airport over weapons transfers, why would it strike the civilian runway and why not actually target the weapons that the Israeli press is claiming get smuggled there?
As long as the Resistance remains in Lebanon, there is no chance that “Israel” will ever come close to creating a reality in which they can exploit the Karish field, and soon “Tel Aviv” will realize that it has to give up its petty game.
*The writer is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker.
June 19, 2022
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
