Last week Israel’s military announced that it had shot down three drones operated by Lebanese Hezbollah, whilst they headed towards the disputed Karish field area off the coast of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah announced that its message had been received and mission completed, after having previously threatened to strike the oil and gas facilities.
The Israel-Lebanon maritime borders dispute has continued to escalate as both Tel Aviv and Beirut fail to find a solution to the US mediated negotiations over where to delineate their sea borders. Most key to these discussions have been the two offshore fields; the Karish and Qana fields. Whilst the Karish field is home to proven oil and gas reserves, a site that Israel seeks to begin exploiting in just a matter of months, the Qana field — that is further north into Lebanon’s territorial waters — is believed to be rich in resources, but is largely unexplored.
The Lebanon-Israel negotiations were re-launched in June after a one-year hiatus, during which the Lebanese State remained without a stable government and sunk further into economic chaos. Last Wednesday, it was announced that the Al-Zahrani and Deir Ammar power stations in Lebanon had again stopped working, meaning that electricity was lost to most of the Lebanese territories. The day before this a small group of Lebanese protesters in Beirut had attempted to break into the headquarters of ‘MTC Touch’, one of the state-contracted telecoms companies, doing so in protest of price hikes in phone and internet services.
As the Lebanese government seems to be in retreat on the prospect of claiming ‘Line 29’, the maritime border claim which would place part of the Karish field in the hands of Lebanon, Hezbollah is applying the pressure on Israel that is needed for a bargaining chip on the side of Beirut. Last Saturday the Israeli military announced that it had used a fighter jet and ship mounted missile systems to shoot down three drones heading towards the Karish field, an area that Israel claims to be within its “Exclusive Economic Zone”.
Hezbollah later released a statement in which they claimed the drones as their own and said that their mission had been completed, communicating their message to the Israeli side. Video then emerged from one of the drones which seemed to show it monitoring the Karish field, which supported claims made of Israel’s difficulty to shoot down the reconnaissance drones. Meaning that if simple reconnaissance drones are a difficulty for Israeli air defence, then high-tech missiles will be much worse. Then, this Wednesday, a report released in the al-Akhbar newspaper, stated that another Hezbollah operated drone had been launched towards the Karish field the Wednesday prior. Later on, that day, Israel’s military stated that they had shot down that drone. The Israeli military spokesperson, Avichai Adraee, also claimed that another drone had been shot down on Tuesday, whilst it was flying over Lebanese territory.
From this brief escalation, which has constituted Hezbollah offering its final warnings to Israel not to proceed with exploiting oil and gas in the disputed zone, the Lebanese Prime Minister, Najib Mikati, decided to condemn the move as dangerous. This then led to many accusations, including from Israeli defence minister, Benny Gantz, that Hezbollah is “preventing the state of Lebanon from reaching an agreement regarding maritime borders.” The pro-Western, pro-Saudi, Arab-media also seem to be taking the line of Israel’s minister of defence, painting Hezbollah as the biggest issue in the dispute.
What all of these media outlets leave out, including the Western corporate media, is the fact that Lebanon is being played by the United States and Israel. If Lebanon agrees to give up its claim to Karish field and maybe even part of Qana field, then it has lost its life line that it could be using to dig itself out of its current economic crisis. For any fair-minded person, why in the world should Lebanon give up oil and gas-rich fields that legally lie inside their own territory, so that Israel can exploit them for some extra revenue. Especially when Lebanon cannot even turn the lights on in their own cities, let alone lift big segments of their society out of poverty and raise living standards. Not only this, but the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, is openly pro-Israeli, someone that laughs and giggles in the face of legitimate calls for Lebanese sovereignty over Karish and Qana. These negotiations are not being conducted in good faith, they are being conducted by one side — the US and Israel — which are attempting to con a weak Lebanese government into handing over billions in resources.
Hezbollah, the Lebanese party which many — with a straight face, funnily enough — like to try and claim is the source of all of Lebanon’s problems, is in fact, yet again, working for Lebanon’s interests more than the Lebanese State itself will. This is the same Hezbollah which in its absence, at the very least, Southern Lebanon would be still under Israeli occupation and perhaps even annexed by Tel Aviv. Out of all of the corruption that has taken place in virtually every corner of Lebanon, which contributed to the current economic crisis, why is it that the one political party, that nobody can produce evidence of corrupt for, is the one suffering the most slander? Well, this is simple, Hezbollah is the only thing stopping Israel and the United States from getting what they want in Lebanon, that is complete control and a subservient Lebanese regime that will hand over to Israel whatever it choses.