Reason #5 Why I Love To Blog -- October 8, 2015

The other day I posted the story that under the cover of Syrian turmoil aggravated by the Russians moving in, Israel quietly expands into the Golan.

There might be another story coming out of the Mideast. With US-Israel relations at an all-time low, and tea leaves suggesting Obama won't help Israel even if Israel needed help, Israel might be willing to "work under the radar" to do things it would never have thought of doing in the past.

There are two stories that suggest things might be changing.

• First this story linked at Drudge today: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20151004/ml--israel-palestinians-0862db682d.html
• Then this story from a couple of days ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/03/world/middleeast/syria-civil-war-israel-golan-heights.html

Building on the Golan Heights would normally result in huge public outcry from the US but President Obama already has his hands full with regard to Syria and no plans for Syria anyway. The Golan Heights is the least of his worries. In addition, with relations at an all-time low between the US and Israel, this can't make things much worse.

That first line: "There might be another story coming out of the Mideast." Here's that story. Fox News is  reporting today:

After Israel complained for years that it was surrounded by oil-rich states but didn’t have a drop within its own borders, it appears there’s a big-time turnaround with the announcement Wednesday that massive oil reserves have been located in the Golan Heights,close to the country’s border with Syria.

Afek Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of the U.S. company Genie Energy, confirmed the find in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 TVbut conceded that until the oil is actually extracted, they won’t be sure of the actual amounts and quality of the oil that has been discovered.

“We are talking about a strata which is 350 meters thick and what is important is the thickness and the porosity,” the company’s chief geologist, Yuval Bartov, explained. “On average in the world, strata are 20-30 meters thick, so this is ten times as large as that, so we are talking about significant quantities. The important thing is to know the oil is in the rock and that's what we now know.”

Read the rest of the story at the link to find out the name of one notable investor in Genie Energy.

But the Golan Heights? Who would have guessed? What a great story.

[The timing of the story does raise a red flag.]