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Israel Must Reject a Terrible Natural Gas Deal with Hizbullah

(Newsweek) Prof. Eugene Kontorovich - The proposed deal would give the Iranian puppet-state in Lebanon hundreds of miles of territory in the Mediterranean Sea - and the vast reserves of natural gas underneath. In the final U.S. proposal, the recipe for compromise is simple: Israel accepts all of Lebanon's territorial claims and redraws its borders. The standard principle in maritime mediation is equitable division somewhere down the middle. But the deal reportedly requires Jerusalem to meet Beirut's claims in full. It does not advance U.S. strategic interests to propose a deal that would strengthen Hizbullah, a State Department-designated terror group and Iranian proxy that largely controls Lebanon. The notion that the gas fields give Lebanon "something to lose" depends on the unlikely assumption that Israel would target these fields, operated by a French company, in retaliation for a Hizbullah missile attack on Israeli facilities. In reality, the international community - as well as legal and environmental concerns - would restrain Israel. The writer is director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Law School.
2022-10-03 00:00:00
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