"Access to these resources, as well as their control and production, are
key elements in determining which bloc will retain global hegemony" ----Gas is also behind the Zionist state of Israel's attack on Palestine. In
a context in which energy resources are beginning to decline,
controlling the deposits that have yet to be exploited, or that have
only recently begun to be exploited, and are therefore far from their
peak extraction, is essential to guarantee the strategic position of
states. To understand the current context, we cannot overlook the fact
that the world order imposed by the West, with the United States as the
leader of the bloc, is beginning to crumble. The BRICS+, the group of
countries that oppose the whims of the West, are becoming stronger every
year through trade, political and military agreements. A significant
part of the countries that belong to this new geopolitical bloc control
a large amount of energy, mineral and industrial resources; This makes
them a real threat to Western hegemony. In this new order, control of
energy resources is a fundamental pillar, since industrial production
and the maintenance of living and consumption standards depend, to a
large extent, on it. This explains, in part, both the war in Ukraine and
the genocide in Gaza.
To understand this connection, a brief review of the historical moment
in which we find ourselves is necessary. After the fall of the gold
standard in the 1970s, the economy began a process of dematerialization
-as neoliberal economists like to call it. This concept can be
misleading, since it is not possible, by definition, to remove the
economy from the materiality of life on the planet. What they proposed
with this ambiguous concept was to separate financial capital from the
burden of its relative equivalence to the gold reserves of central banks
and states. After this movement, money would be backed up by the
issuance of debt. This step was taken by the United States, which
controlled, at that time, world trade transactions and which gave the
final blow to support this new system after signing the petrodollar
agreement with Saudi Arabia - let us not forget that it was after the
blockade of oil production by OPEC as a boycott of Israel's attack in
the Yom Kippur war against Arab countries. In this way, the Western bloc
rose up at a global level as the mediating agent of world trade and,
consequently, linked the world economy to the dollar. For this reason,
the concept of detaching the economy from materiality is deceitful; the
only thing they had done, in effect, was to detach financial capital
from the limitations of gold reserves and connect it with the world
production of fuels and their trade. Thus, the United States and the
West managed to control, de facto, a fundamental pillar for the world
production of goods, in addition to the maintenance of living standards;
they controlled the non-renewable energy resources of the planet. They
had gained yet another tool to subdue rebellious peoples who did not
align themselves or let their conditions be imposed on them. However,
this global balance has been wavering and changing for years. The
driving force behind this imbalance is the creation of the BRICS - still
without the +, since at that time only Brazil, Russia, India, China and
South Africa were members.
With the appearance of this new geopolitical bloc, the global relations
imposed by Western-driven globalization were called into question and
new trade and political cooperation agreements began to be developed.
The latter, cooperation, is a fundamental pillar within this new bloc,
something that radically differentiates it from the Western bloc, where
the criterion that has shaped international relations has been control
and subordination.
The point is that we are at a point where the reserves of most
non-renewable resources are on a productive plateau or beginning to
decline. This is not just another fact. It is key to understanding many
of the positions, discourses, strategies and conflicts that are
occurring and that are yet to come. Access to these resources, as well
as their control and production, are key elements in determining which
bloc will retain global hegemony or, failing that, how all the
conditions that existed in the international relations that have shaped
the world to this day will be renegotiated.
One element that could be decisive in this global reordering was the
BRICS+ meeting that took place in Kazan from 22 to 24 October, where the
aim was to close an agreement that would allow them to create their own
payment system, outside of SWIFT.This, together with Saudi Arabia's
failure to ratify the petrodollar agreement on June 9, opens the door to
a new global trade in raw materials, energy resources and goods, outside
of Western control. This meeting could trigger Ukraine's acceptance of
the use of long-range missiles. These missiles are provided mainly by
the US and the UK, so Russia has already warned that, if used, this
would mean that NATO has entered into war against Russia and that there
will be consequences. Once again, the West's failure to negotiate with
the BRICS+, as a result of the US's refusal to lose global command, is
pushing us towards a greater escalation of the war.
In this context, it is important to introduce the war in Ukraine because
of the political and economic consequences that arise from it. One of
them has been the sanctions against Russia and the cutting off of gas
supplies to Europe. The German economy is already directly suffering the
effects of this bellicose policy of suppressing relations. Thousands of
layoffs are being announced within the German industry, that solid
pillar that has always been sold to us as the engine of the European
economy and the benchmark for all the neoliberal nonsense about
development and innovation. Europe is highly dependent on foreign energy
resources. Today, it imports 83% of the energy it consumes. In this
scenario, cutting off stable and cheap supplies from Russia is clearly a
bad idea. And this has consequences for the positions that the different
European states are adopting with respect to the genocide in Gaza. Let
us remember that this is not the only explanation for what is happening,
however, we cannot forget that the neoliberal refrain of dematerializing
the economy is nothing more than a political strategy so that we do not
see international movements as part of a global strategy to ensure
Western control of production. In other words, they are strategic
movements to keep capitalism standing. After all, they are one of the
fundamental pillars of control and survival of states.
Europe is on the ropes. This is where Gazan gas comes into play, and
more broadly, gas in the Levantine basin of the Mediterranean. In this
area, the coastal strip and exclusive economic zone that runs from
Lebanon to Egypt, there is one of the largest proven gas reserves in the
world. Specifically, the Tamar, Leviathan, Marine 1 and Marine 2 gas
fields. The latter two are located off the coast of the Gaza Strip.
International law recognises an offshore area that it calls the
exclusive economic zone, a maritime region where each state has the
exclusive right to exploit the resources found there. This covers
approximately 200 nautical miles of sea from the coast. By this
criterion, the Gaza Strip includes, in addition to the land area, a part
of the Mediterranean where there are proven gas deposits in which Israel
has interests. Israel's policy since Netanyahu came to power is to focus
the country's economy on the production and distribution of energy
resources, as well as strengthening its industrial arm in the region.
One more reason why the Gaza Strip hinders Israel, since it prevents it
from accessing these deposits.
It is also important to keep in mind that the Tamar and Leviathan fields
are located in the north of Israel, bordering the southern border of
Lebanon. Israel does not want to risk losing control over these two
large gas fields, while at the same time it plans to build gas pipelines
to bring gas to Europe through Cyprus. These reasons strengthen Israel's
position in the West and consolidate it as a gas producer, which
reinforces its global position in general and in the Middle East in
particular. In this way they encourage the attacks against Hezbollah,
which controls southern Lebanon and against which successive attacks
have been launched since September 17. These attacks are intensifying
indiscriminately, spreading terror among the Lebanese population in the
south of the country.
Europe, through companies such as BP, Shell or Enei, have signed
agreements for the exploration and exploitation of the different gas
fields; in the same way that Chevron exploits the Tamar field. The
companies mentioned above are British, Dutch, Italian and American.
Considering Europe's brutal dependence on energy from abroad and the
fact that it has lost the fundamental source of stable and cheap gas for
the last 40 years, the gas fields of the Levantine basin of the
Mediterranean become a great option to keep European capital afloat as
long as possible and thus be able to adapt policies of greater control
over the population. before everything goes to hell, of course. For this
reason, the position of the European states in the face of the genocide
in Gaza is to support Israel, trading with them to maintain their
economy, selling them weapons so that they can achieve their objectives
and giving international diplomatic support so that their atrocities do
not have reprisals.
For all this, it is also important that the European working class
becomes aware of the crossroads in which we find ourselves in order to
understand the reason for the apparent ineffectiveness of the
governments and, therefore, that we all get involved in the Palestinian
cause, because the struggle of the Palestinian people is the struggle of
all peoples for autonomy.
We cannot forget that Palestine is at the other end of the
Mediterranean, while we are at the opposite end. We cannot forget that
the effects of climate change will be felt especially harshly by the
Mediterranean peoples. It is important to remember that the yoke
suffered by the Palestinian people is born of the same capitalist,
colonial and ecocidal interests that we also suffer here. For all these
reasons, it is important to be clear that only the struggle of the
people and the working class can put an end to the massacres and
destruction of the planet. Awareness and action in Europe is becoming
increasingly necessary, otherwise we will be complicit in the
consolidation of a post-capitalist elite that will not hesitate to apply
the most savage fascism to save its position in a world profoundly
altered by the reconfiguration of the poles of power. It is time to stop
being those who execute their interests and free ourselves to build a
new world.
Tilikum
https://www.regeneracionlibertaria.org/2024/11/05/el-interes-por-el-gas-en-la-costa-de-gaza/
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