Gaza Doesn't Need Aid- It Has a £2 Billion Gas Field

International donors will - again - gather next month to pledge money for the Palestinians.

This time France hosts the Palestinian panhandling circus, but the same chorus that for years has argued aid will help solve Palestinian grievances will be heard once more.
Tony Blair, in his job as international envoy to the Palestinians, will look earnest and speak publicly about the importance of the world providing financial support.
But instead of checking into their smart Parisian hotels, donors would do better to come to Gaza to help free a Palestinian economic asset so large that it would do away with the need to bleed the international community of millions in aid every year.
Twenty miles from the beaches of Gaza, too far for the eye to see but still very much in Palestinian waters, lies a fortune in untapped, off-shore gas. Prospecting vessels sent down two probes seven years ago and what they found got the juices of executives from multinational fuel companies flowing. In one field alone, experts estimated a reserve of £2 billion worth of natural gas. And there is plenty of potential for other fields.

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