Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Thursday signed the agreement on a maritime boundary between Israel and Lebanon, that will permit Israel’s neighbor to the north to start digging for underwater natural gas in an area that extends into Israel’s territory.
Lapid and Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun also did not sign the same document, but identical documents that will be submitted to the UN representative at the Rosh Hanikra crossing. Lebanon has been stressing throughout the years of negotiations with Israel that it does not recognize the Jewish State, nor has it given up its desire to see it be erased by its army of terrorists, Hezbollah.
Lapid regards the signing of this agreement as recognition by an enemy state. We say it is capitulation to an enemy. Legal scholars agree. “Nothing in this maritime agreement can be said to constitute a Lebanese recognition of Israel,” said Professor Eugene Kontorovich, director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, which petitioned the Supreme Court against the deal.
Lapid signed the deal without the Knesset’s ratification, and since he also gave away Israeli territory in the bargain, he also ignored the legal requirement to hold a referendum on giving away parts of Eretz Israel no matter who is doing it. For a caretaker Prime minister to do such a thing with elections days away is an unthinkable act.
May the November 1 elections next week bring about a government to erase this disaster. David Israel writes in his article that the new government should “…hire an army of lawyers to get Israel out of this insult to its sovereignty.”