WHILE the US and UK backed Israeli murder machine, both civil and military is at work on a daily basis killing Palestinian men women and children, the signing of the maritime border demarcation deal organised by the United States to define the sea boundary between Lebanon and the Israeli regime, so that Israel can engage in oil exploration, and the NATO powers can get their hands on additional oil sources, is expected to take place by the end of this week with the US special energy envoy Amos Hochstein overseeing the operation.
The signing is set to take place in the Lebanese town of Naqoura, with delegations from Lebanon and the Israeli regime signing the deal in separate rooms. Lebanon is not expected to sign the agreement until after the apartheid regime does so.
Lebanon is desperate, it has been bankrupted by the imperialist powers, while for Israel getting its grip on the oil riches of the Med has always been its dream.
The Lebanese masses are hungry, their country has been looted and bankrupted by corrupt millionaires and the Lebanese people are determined to make a better life for themselves. They do not want to be a tool for Israel and the United States bosses.
For the imperialist powers the prospect of getting their ally Israel organising oil exploration and then exploitation in the Med is a real potential life-saver.
For the Palestinian people, who are now being shot and killed on a daily basis, Israel having access to the oil of the Med, will see all ideas of a Palestinian state of any kind being dumped, as Israel’s Zionist ruling class unholsters its pistols and takes to shooting Palestinians in the streets. Instead of a two state solution, there will be a Zionist state solution, with the Palestinian masses permanently under the feet of their masters.
There was apparently some pressure for a joint meeting and joint declaration of a treaty and this did not and will not happen, it is too much of a mockery of the oppressed Palestinian and Lebanese people!
The oil treaty is to be organised through a third party, the United Nations.
In February, Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s stance on the issue was ‘based on the non-recognition of Israel,’ asserting Hezbollah’s opposition to any conspiracy to normalise, cooperate, or coordinate with the Israeli occupation within the framework of border demarcation.
In fact, up until the last moment when the deal is signed, doubts will remain whether it will take place or not and whether the US will keep its promises and stick to the text of the final proposal, which Lebanon approved after requesting some changes that were done.
Now, despite the upcoming elections in the Israeli occupying regime, the news about the deal kept the Israeli media busy during the past few weeks, reflecting the regime’s worries and dissatisfaction with the situation, and its fear of the Palestinian masses.
For instance, the Israeli media said the maritime demarcation agreement with Lebanon proved the weakness of Lapid’s government in protecting Israel’s invulnerability.
Meanwhile, Israeli army general Yitzhak Brick told the Israeli media that the Israeli occupation had lost a lot of its military strength over the past two decades, exposing Tel Aviv to various threats, with Israeli former Brigadier General Amir Avivi going as far as to state on Tuesday that Hezbollah has forced the Israeli apartheid regime to submit and kneel.
There is enough evidence seen in the statements and words of Israeli officials and journalists to show how seriously the Israeli regime takes Hezbollah. After the signing of any agreement, the Israeli reign of terror in the land of Palestine will be stepped up and not diluted.
If there is to be oil wealth then the masses will want their ownership and control of it established and maintained.
The will of the people of the region to own their natural resources is becoming stronger and stronger.
The Palestinian people will step up their struggle to own their land and own their oil. They must be supported by the workers of the world and their trade unions.
The fight must be stepped up to establish a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and all the wealth of the state under common ownership ie nationalised and planned as part of a socialist economy.
The coming access to the oil wealth of the region will increase the appetite of the masses to carry out a socialist revolution that will establish a planned socialist economy whose motto will be ‘from each according to their ability, to each according to their need!’
