Monday July 4, 2011

I've Been Thinking:

Early this morning, in Egypt, a truck with a handful of men armed with machine guns pulled up to the natural gas pipeline relay in the Northern Sinai Peninsula . They forced the guards away through intimidation and then set charges on the natural gas line and blew it up.

This act of terror and sabotage took place in Bir Abid, 60 miles east of the Suez Canal. The intent is to stop Egypt from providing natural gas to Israel. This is the third attack and the fifth attempt to shut down the gas flow from Egypt to Israel line.

There are several essential points to be noted: The natural gas line which goes to Israel, also flows to Jordan. The line that was blown up was not the right line. The destroyed line, according to a highly knowledgeable source, was an internal natural gas line.

There is a very vocal movement in Egypt to renegotiate the Camp David Treaty which articulates a special relationship between Egypt and Israel - and includes the natural gas provision.

An important aside is that Israel was much more heavily dependent on natural gas from Egypt before January when unrest took over the country. Before January, Israel received over 35% of its natural gas needs from Egypt, since the uprising Israel has weaned itself off Egyptian natural gas and Egypt now provides only 12-15% of their gas. That number, too, is dropping.

Jordan, however, has not found creative alternatives. Jordan remains 85% dependent on Egypt for natural gas. Damaging the pipeline to Israel hurts the Arabs of Jordan significantly more than it hurts the Jews of Israel.

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