This year is the fiftieth birthday! Oil Blackmail will not bring peace!
It should be recalled that in 1967, there was little that could be called European Foreign Policy. Foreign policy was a national affair. The European Communities provided the only legitimate authority and framework. They could make international agreements only in very specific sectors.The European Coal and Steel Community was founded when coal was the main fuel in Europe. Euratom was created to exploit the oil-free energy of the nuclear industry and provide for nuclear non-proliferation. The European Economic Community with its Customs Union brought the dimension of international trade agreements. Only these three Communities could make legal, European law.The founding father of European unity, Robert Schuman (initiator of the European Communities, the Council of Europe, NATO) was sensitive to real Arab interests. Algeria was then an integral part of France. France had colonies and protectorates along the Mediterranean and in Africa. But with judgement of a fine lawyer, he was pro-Israel and pro-truth. He was Prime Minister in the crucial period of November 1947 to July 1948, and Foreign Minister from 1948 to 1953. He instructed France to cast its United Nations vote in favor of Israel.Warnings were made in the 1950s about Europe’s increasing reliance on oil. The 1956 Suez crisis showed how fragile links to the Middle East oil were. However despite attempts of the good Europeans to face up to potential Islamist energy blackmail by combining the defense of the three Communities, the policy was blocked by one factor. General de Gaulle took power in 1957. He changed the foreign policy of energy-poor France from pro-Europe, pro-Israel to a pro-Arab one because of oil.That was myopic.In the 1967 oil crisis France got off the hook. But the Arab oil exporters wanted to use the Oil Weapon to change the foreign policy of the other major States. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, and Algeria stopped oil shipments to the United States, West Germany and United Kingdom (not yet a member of the Communities). Why? Because they didn’t insist Israel return to pre-1967 borders. And they weren’t friendly to Islamic indoctrination.That is the real birth of oil blackmail aimed at dictating to the world an Islamist, anti-Israel foreign policy. Although the British came up with a two State solution first, it was as a temporary political measure.In 1923 the British lobbed off the biggest chunk of the Palestine Mandate territory east of the Jordan and ‘gave’ it to the Hashemite Abdullah, expelled from Arabia and dismissed from Iraq. (They weren’t allowed to take over Syria.)Bad move! That action was without full legal approval of the League of Nations. No other European State recognized the Trans-Jordan. Nor did Saudi Arabia under the Wahabis. Nor any other country who fancied getting some oil. Only Pakistan. In 1937 the British suggested a two State solution in the Peel White Paper to further skin Israel. It had no traction. In 1948 Hashemite Trans-Jordan illegally occupied half of Jerusalem, Judea and SamariaIn 1973 the Arab Oil Exporting Countries (OAPEC) again deployed the Oil Weapon to change global politics. It first tried a total petroleum embargo for some States, cutting oil deliveries 5 percent per month for others. Then it quadrupled the price, reducing the European economy to shatters. It also imposed poverty and seemingly endless wars on developing countries. Then it quadrupled the prices again. So much for Saudi sympathy to fellow Arabs, and even less for Europeans.
If the EU foreign policy chief cannot imagine any other policy than Saudi Arabia’s anti-democratic Two State Solution, 1967 borders and divided Jerusalem, it is because she and many of her officials are now the defenders of Saudi oil blackmail policy. It rules in Europe and at the United Nations. They drank it in with their mother’s milk.For decades after WW2, the price of oil was under two dollars a barrel. It gave Arab oil exporters fat profits, yachts and a playboy lifestyle. Two dollars then is equivalent to under 10 dollars today. Massive oilfields have since been discovered.After WW2, thanks to the Community system, Europe’s growth was continuously more than 5 percent for thirty glorious years. De Gaulle put Europe’s anti-cartel tools in the wood shed, and shut the doors. Schuman was written out of history.Europe became the passive victim of a Trillion Dollar Rip-Off.The Oil Weapon and the Two State Solution Blackmail reduced the European economy to a horse-driven van. Foreign Policy became
“Yes, OPEC Cartel, sir, we believe in the Two State Solution and deny ourselves an independent opinion about Arabs, Islam, democracy, European values and truth! With oil, truth is so slippery! We dhimmis adhere to your Fake History and Fake News!”
Under the Oil Cartel OPEC, the price rose to near 150 dollars a barrel. At that point, the oil blackmail graft amounted to about ten percent of global GDP. Some blackmail! Saudi Aramco is the richest company in the world bar none. Europe became its dhimmis, its slaves and tax mules.
Wake up Europe! Put an end to hypocrisy and blackmail! Open the doors!