March 9, 2021

Two weeks ago, a massive oil spill resulted in one of the worst ecological disasters in Israel’s history, spewing tar over 100 miles of shoreline (over 40% of Israel’s Mediterranean coast) and decimating sea life. The incident revealed the brutal reality of Israel’s maritime vulnerability as well as its ongoing public diplomacy challenges.

A Soft Underbelly in the Water?

Israel claims the spill was caused by a Libyan oil tanker (the Emerald), which was carrying pirated crude oil from Iran to Syria. The vessel left Iran, first sailing through the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Before it passed through the Suez Canal, it switched its automatic identification system — a ship tracking system — on, then turned the tracking system off again just before entering the eastern Mediterranean (Israeli waters). Israel alleges the tanker dropped oil into the sea Feb. 1 or 2, resulting in nearly 1,000 tons of tar spewed since then.

Initially, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel blamed Iran for the disaster, calling it “environmental terrorism,” but Israeli intelligence sources were unable to verify the claim that Iran deliberately caused the oil spill and are currently investigating the incident.

During an interview about the oil spill on Israel’s Channel 12 news, Gamliel said, “There are people who do not look at the risks properly” (a jab at opposition leader Yair Lapid). She then added, “Only Netanyahu knows how to deal with the Iranian threat properly.”

Senior security officials immediately disputed Gamliel’s claim. Israel’s Channel 13 said it was “striking” that neither Israel intelligence nor its security apparatus were involved in forming Gamliel’s assertion.

“It doesn’t matter if it was deliberate or not,” David Yahalomi, director-general of Israel’s Environmental Protection Ministry, told the Israeli Broadcasting Corporation, Kan. “An enemy state that transfers 45 million oil barrels illegally and improperly through Israel’s economic waters is harmful.”

Yahalomi is right, and he makes a terrifying point: This incident was a test run for Iran. If it wants to, Iran can potentially cause a deliberate oil spill in Israeli waters, eluding responsibility while Israel investigates the matter (and watching as the blame falls along partisan lines in Israel). And if Iran decides to unload oil from an entire tanker, it could destroy most of Israel’s Mediterranean coastline.

Imagine that: The famous seaside port cafes of Jaffa, surrounded by tar (forget even eating the fresh fish on the menu), thousands of dead birds washing up on a blackened Tel Aviv beach that was once colored by young Israeli men and women playing matkot (padel ball) and even some of Lebanon’s beaches and sea life destroyed indefinitely due to its proximity with Israel. (By the way, Lebanon, whose Hezbollah party is also bankrolled by Iran, blamed Israel for the oil spill.) That’s why Yahalomi called the situation a “ticking bomb.”

That also explains why Shaul Chorev, Rear Admiral (Ret.) in the Israeli Navy told The New York Times, “In Israel, we have maritime domain blindness.” Chorev, who heads the Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center at the University of Haifa, added, “Our activities are always focused on foiling terrorists activities, but that’s not the whole picture of security in the sea.”

Chorev’s right, particularly in light of the fact that Israel’s seemingly soft maritime underbelly has been hit twice in the past few weeks: Kayhan, Iran’s leading hardliner newspaper, reported that Iran had attacked an Israeli ship off the coast of Oman last week, although it’s not clear if the explosion was caused by mines or missiles. The vessel arrived in Dubai this week, where an Israeli delegation will assess the damage (all thanks to peaceful relations between the United Arab Emirates and Israel as part of the Abraham Accords).

Silence from the Hard Left

We don’t know if Iran deliberately orchestrated the oil spill. We do know, however, that the vessel was smuggling crude oil from Iran to Syria. That, alone, should have sounded the alarm across both aisles of the American political spectrum. Iran continues to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is responsible for over 400,000 Syrian deaths since 2011 (with over 5 million refugees and 6 million people displaced internally, according to the United Nations). In fact, Iran has spent between $20-$30 billion to prop up Assad and has issued a credit line to Syrian that never runs dry.

Last month, in his first military action as president, Joe Biden ordered airstrikes against Iran-backed militias in Syria as retaliation for February rocket attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq. Left-wing leaders, including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) were quick to criticize Biden, citing concerns that Biden acted without congressional approval. In a Feb. 26 statement, Sanders claimed, “I am very concerned by last night’s strike by U.S. forces in Syria…The president has the responsibility to keep Americans safe, but for too long administrations of both parties have interpreted their authorities in an extremely expansive way to continue war. This must end.”

Opponents of the air strikes also cited concerns over civilian casualties. That’s interesting, given their frequent silence in regard to Iran’s blatant support for the Syrian regime. Wouldn’t anyone who’s invested in stopping the Assad regime and bringing an end to the Syrian civil war be horrified that Iran was, more or less, caught red-handed smuggling crude oil to Syria last month? Such malicious (and frequent) acts empower both Iran and Syria. And yet, nary a peep was heard from many leaders on the left who seem to want nothing more than an end to the Syrian civil war.

For two weeks, I was waiting for an American leader from the far left to express outrage over the devastation to the environment and sea life as a result of the oil spill. I’m still waiting.

How could it be that seemingly no one said a word about all of the dead and injured sea creatures that washed ashore in Israel? On Feb. 19, a dead baby whale washed ashore on a beach in Ashdod, south of Tel Aviv. Veterinarians found black liquid inside the 55-foot-long fin whale’s lungs. The Parks Authority has yet to confirm the cause of death, although it suspects tar pollution. I was shocked that the American left, decades-long champions for environmental protection, was silent. The only expression of outrage came from the Israeli chapter of Greenpeace, and it was directed at…Israel.

How could it be that seemingly no one said a word about all of the dead and injured sea creatures that washed ashore in Israel?

Greenpeace called Gamliel’s claim of environmental terrorism “outrageous and factually baseless at this stage” because Gamliel was “minimizing the well-known and widespread phenomenon of marine pollution by ship oil spills.” Greenpeace added, “The minister’s conduct on the matter smells of electioneering and an attempt to score political points over an ecological disaster.”

Whether or not Iran was behind the oil spill, Israel has learned a valuable lesson from this incident: It’s possible that long ago, Israel lost the sympathy of the left over dead Jews who were targeted by Iran-backed terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Now, Israel can’t even seem to garner sympathy from the left over dead sea life. If you’re a sea turtle on Israel’s side of the Mediterranean, you’re apparently also complicit in supporting the illegal Zionist regime.

Greenpeace’s reaction slammed Israel rather than Iran or Syria. But its claims, however harsh-sounding, signaled a reality with regard to messaging during an Israeli election. It’s also not far-fetched to wonder whether Gamliel’s claim was nothing more than quick finger-pointing during an Israeli election season in which Iran has never been more emboldened or menacing.

I don’t know if Iran deliberately caused the oil spill in order to pollute Israeli waters. I’ll leave that to Israeli intelligence. I am nearly certain, however, that Iran was trying to smuggle pirated cargo into Syria using a Libyan oil tanker. For Iran, that’s called a Thursday.

In the Middle East, it’s sometimes excruciatingly hard to point a definite finger at an enemy with dozens of proxies who are only too happy (and well-paid) to carry out its malicious attacks. But here’s the thing about oil spills when they involve states like Iran and Syria: Whether such incidents are deliberate or accidental, sooner or later, those sticky fingers leave enough dirty, traceable marks to offer an irrefutable sea of evidence.

Tabby Refael is a Los Angeles-based writer, speaker and activist. Follow her on Twitter @RefaelTabby