Natural gas could lead to new Lebanon-Israel war

Natural gas could lead to new Lebanon-Israel war

news.yahoo.com

BEIRUT – The discovery of large natural gas reserves under the waters of the eastern Mediterranean could potentially mean a huge economic windfall for Israel and Lebanon, both resource-poor nations — if it doesn't spark new war between them.
The Hezbollah militant group has blared warnings that Israel plans to steal natural gas from Lebanese territory and vows to defend the resources with its arsenal of rockets. Israel says the fields it is developing do not extend into Lebanese waters, a claim experts say appears to be correct, but the maritime boundary between the two countries — sti

(visit the link for the full news article)

Looks like its going to be an interesting rest of 2010. All the tension being build up in the middle east by the US and Israel will coming to a breaking point at some point. What better way to spark a war than over gas? The US has been masquarading around the globe in its war on terrorism while everyone knows its about oil. Lets see what Israel chooses to do with this. Hezbollah has already started its rhetoric about Israel stealing the gas.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

It’s probably bad news for Lebanon as they’ll loose both land and gas. At the end of the day, almost all, international investors would prefer investment in “stable” Israel. Therefore if Israel took the Lebanese gas fields e.g. through Slant Drilling; very little will be done about it. It’s not going to be hard to get a few Mossad agents to fire inaccurate rockets, or (far more likely) to find Lebanese idiots willing to act as a War Flag.

But as (I guess) Israel has a lot of drilling work of its own to do, so I doubt war will happen for at least 5 years.

The only way the Lebanese can develop their gas fields in the meantime, is if some friendly power supports them. The only one that comes to mind is Iran. Not hard to guess how Israel may react to that! Will be interesting.

Not saying I think a war will happen, but if it should end up happening I could not help but wonder how ready each side might be. I think we all most likely know how many Israel has gone to war in the past so they have seasoned men and equipment behind it. Hear is a little bit of information on Lebanon.

The LAF consists of 56,000 active personnel[3] with the Land forces consisting of approximately 53,900 troops, the air & air defense forces consisting of about 1,000 personnel and another 1,100 in the naval forces. All three branches are operated and coordinated by LAF Command, which is located in Yarzeh, east of Lebanon's capital, Beirut. Currently the LAF is ranked 6th in the world in terms of growth, with the number of military personnel doubling over the period between 1985 to 2000.[4] The country has six military colleges and schools. The Lebanese officers are sent to other countries to receive additional training.

The equipment of the LAF is outdated due to a lack of funds, political bickering and until recently the presence of foreign forces.[citation needed] After the conclusion of the Lebanese Civil War, the LAF decided to repair as much of its equipment as it could, while being aided by modest donations from other nations. About 85% of the LAF's equipment is American-made with the remaining being British, French, and Soviet-made.[5]
[edit] wiki

And a little on Israel

Equipment[1] Quantity In Service Being delivered
High quality main battle tanks 1030 1030 300
Medium and low quality tanks 1980 1620
APCs, IFVs, ARVs, LCVs 7070 7070 250
Self-propelled artillery 1254 1114 60
Combat warplanes 874 541 25
Transport warplanes 76 66 9
Training warplanes 171 110
Military helicopters 286 184 6
Heavy SAM batteries 25 25 1
Warships 13 13 9
Submarines 3 3 2
Patrol boats 50 50 8

wiki

Manpower
Military age 18
Conscription 18
Available for
military service 1,499,186 males, age 17–49 (2000 est.),
1,462,063 females, age 17–49 (2000 est.)
Fit for
military service 1,226,903 males, age 17–49 (2000 est.),
1,192,319 females, age 17–49 (2000 est.)
Reaching military
age annually 50,348 males (2000 est.),
47,996 females (2000 est.)
Active personnel 176,500[1] (ranked 34th)
Reserve personnel 445,000[1]

wiki

Strange things have happened on the battle field, but by just looking at the numbers if a war happens most might say it would be a masacare.

The gas has only just been discovered and Hezbollah is already accusing Israel of wanting to "steal Lebanese gas" and vowing to kill them if they try.

It's impossible to deal rationally with those people, they understand only hatred and violence.

Truly a backward and bigoted people, Israel can only hope to keep them at arms length.

The bigger irony here is that the Lebanese could use this opportunity to partner with the Israelis - using their money and expertise to extract the gas while cashing in on the benefits.

Of course they would then use that revenue to fund the killing of more Israelis..........

can the jews send some missile to Bankstown sydney and can the plebs send some suicide bombers to Vaucluse sydney would be good to kill 2 birds with one stone.

does not look good for israel this month, to many things going on going for the gas now will create other problems maybe even with syria look at this map


Israel is in a chess board

Like i said in another thread i am 90% confident Israel and Hezbollah will be in a full-scale war by the end of the year. What causes it is another issue.

reply to post by RedGolem


thanks for the info on lebbenon i had never seen that before! im a bit ignorat of drilling and whatnot but is slant drilling where you drill at an angle and then use that to circumvent nations terrirorial watters or like territory?

Well, I guess this gives them another option. They want war, that much is clear, so now they have a choice between Iran and Lebanon.

Frankly, since they love war and violence so much, why don't they all get together in some remote spot and play some war games and blow each other up!

Originally posted by jonny2410
Like i said in another thread i am 90% confident Israel and Hezbollah will be in a full-scale war by the end of the year. What causes it is another issue.

Firstly "full scale" doesn't apply to the insignificant skirmishes that pass as conflict in that area of the Middle East. World War I was full scale war, this is a slapping contest.

Secondly, with the Palestinian terrorists launching missiles into Israel on an almost daily basis there's no doubt as to who starts the armed conflicts. Although with Iron Dome coming on line this year, the Israelis will finally have an effective defence against those animals.

Israel creates a defensive weapon, the Palestinians beg Syria for more missiles.

Doesn't make it hard for me to choose sides.

I guess the summer is quite over yet, so we may be graced with another skirmish in the middle east involving Israel and [insert random middle eastern country here]. They do sure have a lot of fight in them for being so drastically surrounded by hostile nations.

reply to post by Retseh


Firstly i am not taking a side. I can see that both sides have points and deficiencies.

Secondly when i said full-scale i meant i beleive this war will be 10 times worse than 2006. I.e thousands of rockets being fired into Israel in days and Israel mobilising very large amounts of troops. Also if war breaks out again you can bet your bottom dollar iran and syria will do their best to aid Hezbollah, thus making it harder for the IDF to attack.

reply to post by KilrathiLG


Yes it is slant drilling, but I have no idea how the laws of the area apply to things like that. Mineral rights is the issue and we need an attorney to chime in on this thread to find out about that.