After the overthrow of Damascus, Syria, in early December came the rush to Damascus by the United States, Israel, and Türkiye, which helped rebel groups topple the government of Bashar al-Assad.
Despite an interim government being formed consisting of rebel groups laying their weapons down to unite, weeks later both America and Israel are still militarily engaged in Syria.
Israel committed over 480 missile attacks, seizing more land in southern Syria along the border with the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights. The land grab included a de-militarized buffer zone established by the United Nations in 1974. America and Israel argue that Israel’s multifront war march is self-defense. To Israel, these actions are part of a vision for a new region and things to come.
“A year ago, I said something simple: We would change the face of the Middle East, and we are indeed doing so,” said Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Dec. 15. “Syria is not the same Syria. Lebanon is not the same Lebanon. Gaza is not the same Gaza. And the head of the axis, Iran, is not the same Iran; it has also felt the might of our arm,” he added.
The statement came on the heels of Israel unanimously approving a plan to increase the building of illegal settlements in the occupied Golan Heights, with a budget exceeding $11.13 million, reported Anadolu, the news site.
“We are working today forcefully and with due consideration in order to have security regarding all the countries of the region and in order to have stability and security on all of our borders,” said Mr. Netanyahu.
But in the words of other proponents of Zionism, the plan to remake the Middle East goes further.
“Eventually our borders will extend from Lebanon, the great desert, which is Saudi Arabia, and then from the Mediterranean to the Euphrates,” said Avi Lipkin, Israeli author, politician, and lecturer, in an interview in January 2024. “And who’s on the other side of the Euphrates?
The Kurds, and the Kurds are our friends. So, we have the Mediterranean behind us, the Kurds in front of us, Lebanon—which really needs the umbrella of protection of Israel—and then we’re going to take, I believe we’re going to take Mecca, Medina and Mount Sinai,” said Mr. Lipkin. “We’ll purify those places,” he added.
The explosive words paint a vivid picture of the ultimate aim of the settler colonial state to achieve “Eretz Israel” or “Greater Israel” referring to the expansion of Israel’s sovereignty in what some Israelis claim as their historic Biblical lands. For them, this includes the occupied Palestinian territories, the occupied Golan Heights, and the territory mentioned by Mr. Lipkin.
The Zionist plan to dominate and remake the Middle East by annexing large swathes of these countries is rooted in the vision of Theodor Herzl, an atheist and founder of Zionism.
February 2024 words of warning about Israel’s ultimate plans were revealed by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Nation of Islam. Minister Farrakhan warned that Israel’s genocide in Gaza, and now war fronts regionwide, illegal land grabbing and settlements are part of a protracted plan to remake the Middle East.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu has a vision of Eretz Israil. Several states over there, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, they intend to annex that to what is called ‘Greater Israel,’” said Minister Louis Farrakhan, in a seismic message entitled “What Does Allah The Great Mahdi And The Great Messiah Have To Say About The War In The Middle East?” delivered on Feb. 25, 2024 at the Nation of Islam’s Saviours’ Day convention in Detroit.
“Do you know about that? That man already has over 400 nuclear bombs sitting in the desert in Dimona, Israel,” Minister Farrakhan continued. “That’s a lot of weapons. And they, now, feel that they are the power in the Middle East, and they are,” he said.
Concerning the Palestinians, Minister Farrakhan said Mr. Netanyahu had in mind a second Nakba (catastrophe). The first Nakba happened when Israel became a state in 1948 and forcefully exiled 700,000 Palestinians, making them like vagabonds in the earth. Minister Farrakhan said the move was a pretext to force a new reality on Gaza and genocidal actions on the Palestinian people.
“But he had in mind, Netanyahu, he was going to use the pain of their loss to destroy the whole Palestinian community, not only in Gaza, but the West Bank, East Jerusalem,” explained Minister Farrakhan, referring to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israeli concert goers, killing 1,200, that he said Netanyahu “sanctioned.”
“It was a genocidal attack that he knew preserved his place as a Jewish leader. People do strange things when their hatred is so great of the people that they are killing, that their intention was to cleanse Gaza of every Palestinian that lived there and cleanse the West Bank and East Jerusalem so that Israel would not be bothered with Palestinians anymore,” he added.
Oil wealth in Gaza
In the February remarks, Minister Farrakhan also noted that Israel has its eye on billions of dollars in oil wealth under Gaza, and they want to build a canal larger than Egypt’s Suez Canal and take advantage of that wealth. He compared Israel to what America did to Native Americans after discovering wealth in the land they forced them to.
“When they found out there was value, they killed those native people to get the value. And that’s what they’re doing now to the Palestinians, because they want to build a great canal, bigger than the Suez Canal, because there are billions and billions of dollars of oil and gas in Gaza, and the waters around Gaza,” said Minister Farrakhan.
Years before Israel’s latest genocidal war on Palestinians in October 2023, geologists and resources economists confirmed that the occupied Palestinian territory sits above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth.
In Area C of the West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off of the Gaza Strip, according to a study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), new discoveries of natural gas in the Levant Basin are in the range of 122 trillion cubic feet.
While recoverable oil is estimated at 1.7 billion barrels, according to the 2019 study, entitled “The Economic Cost of Occupation for the Palestinian People: The Unrealized Oil and Natural Gas Potential.”
This offers an opportunity to distribute and share about $524 billion among the different parties in the region and promote peace and cooperation among old adversaries, the study notes.
“The exploitation of Palestinian natural resources, including oil and natural gas, by the occupying Power imposes on the Palestinian people enormous costs that continue to escalate as the occupation remains in effect,” said UNCTAD’S report. “This is not only contrary to international law, but also in violation of natural justice and moral law,” added the report.
UNCTAD said the real and opportunity costs of the occupation exclusively in the area of oil and natural gas has accumulated to tens, if not hundreds, of billions of dollars.
Some of the specific sites under purview are:
· The Levant Gas Fields—beneath the eastern Mediterranean Sea and spans the coasts of Gaza, Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. There is an estimated 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.
· Gaza Marine Natural Gas Field—Located off the coast of Gaza, the Gaza Marine Natural Gas Field is a subset of the larger Levant gas field. British Gas Exploration and Production (BGEP) confirmed its existence in 1999 after extensive exploration efforts.
The estimated reserves within Gaza Marine amount to 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. The promise was never realized and Israeli meddling obstructed Palestinians from benefiting from the resource.
· The Meged Oil and Gas Field—A disputed territory located at the West Bank apartheid wall, which separates the occupied Palestinian Territory from Israel. It stretches across Syria to the northeast.
Observers and analysts say Israel’s warring through the Middle East with the “ironclad” support of Washington is for control and economic influence of resources, not lands bestowed to Jews by scriptural mandate, as some claim.
America wants oil, control and economic influence over Eurasia. Israel wants to realize its aim for “Greater Israel,” the resource wealth, and unfettered control of the region.
Minister Farrakhan warned that the aspiration to accomplish Greater Israel will not succeed and Mr. Netanyahu will not see it come to fruition.
“Mr. Netanyahu: There is a revolt against him now in Israel, and he may not be elected as prime minister in the future. I am saying this to him now … because you are not going to live to see the vision that you have for Israel, to ‘conquer the whole Middle East,’ and you will be ‘the great [leader],’” said Minister Farrakhan.
“No, no, no. You can pack that desire away, because you will never see what you envision,” he said. To view Minister Farrakhan’s 2024 Saviours’ Day message in its entirety, visit media.noi.org.
