The Profits from Taking Gaza

16 June 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

On 26 February 2025, Fox News headlined “Trump posts AI video of Gaza as luxury resort”, which showed clips from a promotional video that Trump had had done to show how he would like Gaza to be after the Gazans are eliminated from there and replaced by a world-class tropical beach-resort on the Mediterranean Sea.

Encyclpedia Britannica has an article “Natural Gas in the Gaza Strip” (updated to 15 May 2025), which says:

Natural gas reserves were discovered about 20 miles (35 km) offshore the Gaza Strip in 2000. The reserves, located within the maritime boundaries allocated to the Palestinian Authority (PA) under the bilateral Oslo Accords between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, were a key discovery for the still nascent Palestinian governing body, which was eager to establish a viable and independent economy. Although the Gaza Marine natural gas field, with an estimated 1.1 trillion cubic feet (32 billion cubic meters) of natural gas, is modest compared with some regional giants, the reserve far exceeds the energy needs of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Its development, which the PA originally licensed to BG Group and CCC Group, offered the PA a path to self-sufficiency in energy and greater economic development through exports. After Royal Dutch Shell PLC purchased BG Group in 2016, the Palestine Investment Fund (PIF), the PA’s sovereign wealth fund, acquired its interest.

The Gaza Marine field remains unexploited because of the difficulty attracting the investment to develop it. The primary limiting factor is the size of the PA’s domestic market: Its energy consumption is too small to offset the cost of developing the field, which is estimated to be at least $800 million and could potentially be much more. Since the Oslo peace process was intended to bring peace and cooperation between the Israelis and the Palestinians, it was initially assumed that Israel would buy natural gas from the PA and add significantly to its return on investment. But the discovery of the natural gas reserves in 2000 coincided with the outbreak of the second intifada (2000–05). The hostility between Israel and the PA derailed the Oslo peace process, and discussions for a contract for natural gas did not get far. After the 2006 elections for the PA led to a unity government with Hamas,

And, so, of course, Israeli and American billionaires will be reluctant to develop it unless Israel will have taken it. Eliminating the Gazans would enormously increase its market-value. But that gas field isn’t the only one that would be affected by Israel’s expansion to include all of the lands that the Jewish and Christian Bibles say God gave to “the Jews”:

Genesis 15:18-21

“On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham and said, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt [the Nile] to the great river, the Euphrates, including the lands of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amoriotes, the Caananites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’”

That’s the basis of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestine and parts of Lebanon and Syria; and, furthermore, in Deuteronomy 7:1-2, 7:16, and 20:16-18 (and other passages), ‘God’ demanded Jews to exterminate all of the non-Jewish residents there. Many Jewish, Christian, and some other billionaires, agree with Hitler that the Bible is the “Monumental History of Mankind”; and, so, Israel’s taking those lands is, from the Biblical standpoint, right, and not merely a potentially quite profitable thing to do. It would certainly increase considerably the marketability to investors, of those gas fields, especially because throughout the U.S.-Israel-UK empire, Hamas is demonized (and therefore would, from the Biblical standpoint, be very embarrassing for those investors to be partnering with).

On 28 August 2019, UNCTAD, UN Trade and Development, had issued “The unrealized potential of Palestinian oil and gas reserves”, and reported:

Geologists and resources economists have confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip, according to a recent UNCTAD study.

New discoveries of natural gas in the Levant Basin are in the range of 122 trillion cubic foot while recoverable oil is estimated at 1.7 billion barrels, according to the study entitled “The Economic Cost of Occupation for the Palestinian People: The Unrealized Oil and Natural Gas Potential.”

This offers an opportunity to distribute and share about US$524 billion among the different parties in the region and promote peace and cooperation among old belligerents, the study notes.

These funds could finance socioeconomic development in the oPt as part of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

However, so far the Palestinian people have been prohibited from exploiting the oil and gas reserves in their own land and water to meet their energy needs and generate fiscal and export revenues. …

On 21 July 2015, The Electronic Intifada had headlined “Israel exploits Syrian chaos to plan looting of Golan oil”, concerning Lebanon, instead of Gaza, and opened:

According to Geoff Rochwarger, CEO of Afek, energy independence is the new Zionism.

The Afek oil and gas exploration company has almost completed its second drilling test in the Golan Heights, a part of Syria which Israel has occupied since 1967 and annexed in violation of international law.

The test is part of a three-year program to see if hydrocarbons in the area could lead to oil or gas for Israel.

Israel is fuel-poor and its domestic energy woes could be eased in the interim if the government progresses on deals in relation to the Tamar and Leviathan gas fields in the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition, Israel is now taking advantage of the chaos in Syria to look for precious resources to extract from the occupied Golan Heights.

Israel relies heavily on imports to meet its energy consumption, and with frequent vicissitudes with its neighbors, its need for energy resources continues to shape the nature of its occupation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as the Golan Heights.

With the Syrian government in disarray, Israeli authorities gave the go-ahead to Afek, a subsidiary of Genie Oil and Gas, to conduct drilling in 10 wells in the occupied Golan Heights in their search for fossil fuels.

According to Howard Jonas, chairman and CEO of Genie Energy Limited, the parent company of Genie Oil and Gas, the company’s team of experts believes that what lies under the Golan Heights could make Israel energy independent and “contribute to the diversification of the free world’s energy supply away from a crippling dependence on unfriendly sources” (see the Genie Energy annual report for 2014).

“Kill them all”

Genie Oil and Gas has some high profile investors and advisors: Media baron Rupert Murdoch, former US Vice President Dick Cheney, American hedge fund manager Michael Steinhardt and British investment banker Jacob Rothschild are all members of the company’s “Strategic Advisory Board.”

Murdoch stated in 2013 that “Israel is the greatest ally of democracy in a region beset with turmoil and radicalism.” This was an audacious statement given his investment in a company breaking the basic tenets of international law.

The chairman of Genie Israel, Effie Eitam, who lives in the Golan Heights settlement of Nov, is a former military commander and member of the National Religious Party. He once referred to Palestinian citizens of Israel as a “ticking bomb” causing a “cancer” in Israel. He also told The New Yorker in 2004, that Palestinians were “creatures who came out of the depths of darkness” adding that “we will have to kill them all” before backpeddling slightly: “I know it’s not very diplomatic. I don’t mean all the Palestinians, but the ones with evil in their heads.”

Afek claims on its website that Syria’s occupied Golan Heights is part of the “State of Israel.” The company was granted a petroleum exploration license by the northern regional planning and building committee, in direct violation of international law by completely ignoring the Annex to the Fourth Geneva Convention — which applies to the occupied territory.

In February, an Afek subsidiary started drilling its first exploratory well and drilled to a depth of 1,000 meters. The samples extracted are now undergoing analysis and drilling continues. In the event that the company finds oil, it will request the required licenses to begin the production stage.

There are grave breaches of international law as well as environmental concerns at play here. Firstly, the type of oil expected in the area may not be in liquid form and could require fracking — a process that involves injecting large amounts of scarce water and toxic chemicals into the ground in order to force the hydrocarbons to the surface.

Whether it is conventional oil or shale oil, fracking or drilling could lead to oil seepage into the underground water table, polluting Lake Tiberias — the biblical Sea of Galilee — potentially rendering local water supplies undrinkable and destroying the ecosystem for generations to come.

Looting Syria’s resources

The Golan plateau was occupied by Israel during the 1967 War. UN Security Council resolution 242 and several other resolutions since have called for Israeli withdrawal from the occupied territory and condemned Israel’s actions there.

These have included: annexation and imposition of Israeli law in 1981, an action the UN Security Council declared “null and void.” Israel has also transfered its own population into the area for the purpose of colonization and the use of the territory’s resources for its own economic interests.

Imperialists always steal — that is what imperialism is.

Whether America is part of Israel’s empire, or instead Israel is part of America’s empire, is not yet entirely clear, but in the following excerpt — an excellent brief summary of the history here — from a recent speech by Jeffrey Sachs, both possibilities amount much to the same things: gargantuan international theft, by that empire (irrespective of where its center is):

“Jeffrey Sachs, Geir Pedersen, Nuh Yılmaz, Carl Skau Debate Syria's Future at ADF 2025 | AC1G”

The presentation by Sachs:

13 April 2025:

10:26

INTERVIEWER: What is the grand

10:27

strategy of the United States of America in Syria and how do you see the game

10:34

played right now by Trump administration … JEFFREY SACHS: I think it's

10:40

important for us to understand where this entire war came from: It did not

10:47

come from Bashar al-Assad. It came from Washington. There was a

10:54

decision in 2011 to overthrow

11:00

Assad. Actually that came from Jerusalem. This has been a desire of the Israeli

11:06

government that stretches back more than 25 years. Netanyahu's idea is make the

11:15

Middle East in Israel's image. Overthrow every government that opposes Israel.

11:23

He's had a friend in that. and that is the CIA and the United States government.

11:29

So this war in Syria did not come from Assad's repression. Uh it did not come

11:37

from Assad's dictatorship. This war came from a presidential order by Obama to

11:46

overthrow Assad starting in the spring of 2011. We have a name for this program: It

11:53

was Operation Timber Sycamore. The United States together with other

11:58

countries in this region trained uh rebel trained fighters especially

12:05

jihadists including the ones that just took power, to uh overthrow the regime.

12:12

This created chaos, 600,000 dead in Syria, in a war

12:18

that has gone on for 14 years. The outcome of this war is what the CIA

12:25

wanted back in 2011, which is that a jihad group would

12:30

take power in Syria after being armed by the United States.

12:37

The reason I want to be clear about this is that we will not have peace in this region until we have public diplomacy

12:46

that is based on real diplomacy. not on CIA operations. And we will not have peace

12:53

until Israel stops its militarization of

12:59

the entire Middle East. Because the Syrian war is just one of six wars that

13:05

Israel has promoted including in Lebanon Iraq Syria Libya Somalia and

13:15

Sudan. We had the list actually from Wesley Clark back in

13:21

2001 when he was handed a paper in the Pentagon that the goal was seven wars in

13:28

five years. The only war that hasn't taken place yet to Netanyahu's great

13:34

consternation is the US war with Iran which Israel is still trying to

13:41

instigate to this very day. So the Syrian war is part of a

13:47

regional tragedy. We have tragedy in Gaza

13:52

the West Bank Lebanon Syria Iraq Sudan

13:58

South Sudan and Libya that I put at the hands of the United States government

14:04

and its ally Israel, because none of these wars had to

14:11

happen. These were all wars of choice They were all wars that came from the

14:16

idea of regime change operations that the United States would

14:21

determine which regimes operate in which countries. We'll never have peace in this

14:28

region if outside imperial powers like the United States are dictating the

14:33

terms to this region. The only way to have peace in this region is if this

14:38

region is determining its own future ,not outside powers. And Israel could never do

14:47

these wars on its own. These are American wars. America provides the financing, It

14:55

provides the uh military backup, It provides uh the naval support, It

15:02

provides the intelligence operations, It provides the munitions. Israel couldn't fight for one

15:09

day without the United States backing. Israel could not be committing a genocide in Gaza without the United

15:16

States full operational complicity. I don't mean political complicity, I mean

15:21

direct daily operational complicity. This has to end. This region

15:27

has been divided for 100 years, First by the British Empire, And then by the

15:32

American Empire, And this is going on until today. We have

15:37

a genocide going on right next door. Till today, till this morning, People

15:44

being wantingly killed, brazenly killed because the United States is providing

15:51

the means for this. So this is what's happening in Syria. Is the US on the

15:57

fence? Hardly. It's the major actor. I know by the way I know

16:04

firsthand that in 2012 UN Secretary General Ban

16:11

Ki-moon appointed former Secretary General Kofi Annan as special envoy to

16:18

reach a peace in Syria. I loved Kofi Annan, I love Ban

16:24

Ki moon. I worked for both of them Kofi Annan arranged a peace in

16:33

2012. He arranged a peace in Syria. You know why it didn't

16:39

happen? Because all the parties agreed to peace except

16:44

one. Literally one. That was the United States of America.

16:51

The United States of America said there will be no peace unless Bashar al-Assad

16:56

goes the first day. The other parties said "No no you

17:01

can't just determine that, Maybe there'll be a process, Maybe there'll be elections

17:07

agreed, Maybe there'll be a two-year process, a three-year process." The United States said “No. Assad must go the

17:15

first day of any agreement or we block it." And so Kofi Annan stepped down from his

17:22

position after having negotiated a peace arrangement. And we have had 500,000

17:28

people dead since then. We should not allow this kind of

17:36

criminality to be normal. This region has been at war

17:42

non-stop for 30 years. Actually I would say for at least 57 years since the six-

17:49

day war because there has been no

17:56

honest accounting of international law, no

18:01

honest diplomacy. It's been militarization all the way through. And

18:08

we could have peace immediately in this region. All that is required in my view

18:16

is the United States change its veto of Palestine as the 194th UN member state,

18:24

because on that basis all the region would normalize relations and the wars

18:30

all across this region would stop. But Israel has had control of over US policy

18:37

and it says no, It wants greater Israel, It wants Israel in Syria, It wants Israel

18:42

in Lebanon, It wants Israel in the West Bank, It wants Israel in East Jerusalem. It wants Israel in Gaza. And until that

18:50

stops, we're not going to have peace. So is the US on the fence? Of course not.

18:55

It's the major protagonist of this whole war, and has been for the last 14 years.

19:01

—

Though Sachs said

10:40

important for us to understand where this entire war came from: It did not

10:47

come from Bashar al-Assad. It came from Washington. There was a

10:54

decision in 2011 to overthrow

11:00

Assad. Actually that came from Jerusalem. This has been a desire of the Israeli

11:06

government that stretches back more than 25 years. Netanyahu's idea is make the

11:15

Middle East in Israel's image. Overthrow every government that opposes Israel.

11:23

He's had a friend in that. and that is the CIA and the United States government.

11:29

The CIA backed America's first attempted coup in Syria in 1949, and did another coup-attempt there in 1955, and thus the U.S. regime was trying ever since 1949 to change Syria’s Government. Sachs was therefore correct that it “stretches back more than 25 years,” but it went actually back 75 years. And, almost certainly, Israel was likewise involved in those prior attempts, too. Consequently, even as early as that, it was already difficult to know whether America has been part of Israel’s empire, or instead Israel is part of America’s empire. Either way, the result has been the same for the U.S. empire, or for the Israeli empire, regarding Israel and the Palestinians. And, in any case, this is the U.S.-UK-Israel empire, which has been built up ever since 25 July 1945.

Harry Truman started the American hegemony — empire seeking to take over the entire world — on 25 July 1945. And he started Israel on 14 May 1948 when he signed America’s recognition of Israel as the provisional Jewish Government of Palestine and thus approved Israel’s (the Zionists’) representation at the U.N. as being the representatives of that land in the U.N. On 31 January 1949, that Jewish-nazi or “Zionist” (racist-fascist) regime became at the U.N. the official legal representative of that land at the U.N. The Nakba (Israel’s aggressive war against the Palestinians, and the Arabs’ defensive war against these Jewish nazis) started the following day, on May 15th.

The present thefts by the U.S. aristocracy, and by the Israeli aristocracy, are simply the continuation of that Nakba, which Truman had started.

—————

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.