Israeli media: Maritime deal united Lebanese, divided Israelis

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Israeli media
4 Oct 2022 00:25
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Israeli media are highlighting a split in positions in "Israel" regarding the maritime agreement.

Israeli media: Lebanon is united regarding the maritime demarcation agreement

On Monday, Israeli media reported that "Lebanon is united over the maritime agreement, and "Israel" is divided."

In the details, the Israeli channel KAN said that "a country suffering from conflict and is politically divided, such as Lebanon, appears more united than Israel with regard to everything related to the issue of the dispute on the maritime borders."

The Israeli channel commented on the speech of the caretaker Prime Minister in Lebanon, Najib Mikati, in which he said that "the agreement is acceptable to us, but we will convey some observations to the American mediator," noting that "there is a basic consensus that the settlement proposal on the part of the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, is accepted by the Lebanese side."

The interviewer on KAN then asked, "Why is this important? Because "Israel" appears contrary to what it should be?"

The response was that "it is true that a senior (Israeli) political source said yesterday that Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Security Minister Benny Gantz agreed to Hochstein's proposal, but there are a number of question marks, not only about the crystallized agreement and how it will be ratified but also within the government and inside the cabinet."

Netanyahu: "Agreement is illegal, we won’t be obligated by it"

Earlier, former Israeli occupation Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters that Lapid is shamefully surrendering to the threats of the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

According to Netanyahu, should the agreement with Lebanon be signed, Hezbollah would be "receiving Israel’s sovereign territory and a gas field worth billions of dollars" without any parliamentary debate and referendum.

"Lapid has no mandate to give sovereign territory and sovereign assets that belong to all of us to an enemy state," Netanyahu said.

The former Israeli PM reiterated that the agreement with Lebanon "is illegal and we won’t be obligated by it," in the event of returning to power after the November 1 election.

In response, Lapid tweeted that "I understand that it pains you that you didn’t succeed in achieving an agreement, but that is no reason to join Nasrallah’s propaganda campaign."

Lapid said that Netanyahu "hasn’t seen the agreement," claiming that it gives "Israel" "100% of its security needs, 100% of the Karish reserve, and even some of the profits from the Lebanon reserve."

Two days ago, a Lebanese source concerned with the demarcation negotiations confirmed to Al Mayadeen that "Lebanon obtained, in the written proposal it received from the Americans, all its demands," adding that "Lebanon has not and will not give Israel any security zone that it previously demanded."

This comes after Lebanon received the written response from the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, regarding the demarcation of its southern maritime borders, through the American ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy Shea.

On his part, Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also touched on the issue of the Lebanese maritime borders, saying that the importance of what is happening today is there is a written text from the mediating party that the President, Parliament Speaker, and the Prime Minister have received.

In turn, Israeli media said that the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, "succeeded in the battle of awareness in the negotiations to demarcate the maritime borders."