Ever since the start of Syria’s civil war, President Bashar al-Assad has tried to paint the revolt against his regime in the blue-and-white hues of Israel’s flag. In the very first days of the uprising, he sent young Palestinians to storm the border fence on the Golan Heights. Last month Israel was linked to the bombing of a weapons convoy making its way from the outskirts of Damascus to the Lebanese border. While strategists in Jerusalem continue to discuss ways to thwart the smuggling of long-range missiles to Hezbollah, last Saturday the IDF transferred seven wounded Syrians who showed up at the border to an Israeli hospital for treatment. Ostensibly, Israel has absolutely no interest in helping Assad draw attention from the massacre he is conducting against his own people to focus on the larger Arab-Israeli conflict.

Ostensibly, it would seem obvious that with eyes of the world focused on the nuclear talks with Iran in Kazakhstan, Israel has no interest in drawing international attention to itself. Ostensibly, it would seem apparent that just a few weeks before the visit of President Barack Obama, Israel’s most important strategic ally, to Jerusalem, Israel should avoid taking provocative steps that run counter to American policy. Last week the State Department announced that it already investigates Israel’s petroleum exploration efforts in the Golan Heights. It stands to reason that the release of the official tender was not appreciated by Washington, especially when the President is attempting to promote the Arab peace initiative, based on Israel’s withdrawal from all territory it captured in 1967 [West Bank and the Gaza strip] in exchange for normal relations with the Arab League. At this point it is hard to imagine Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Bashar Assad, but a resounding slap in the face is hardly a choice alternative.

To the members of the Petroleum Council of the Ministry of Energy and Water, these considerations are not as obvious. Otherwise, they would not have granted licenses to drill for oil in a stretch of territory that covers half of the Golan Heights (from the town of Katzrin in the north to Tzemach in the south), especially not now. The process actually began last summer, when the Minister of Energy and Water Uzi Landau declared the Golan Heights to be open for the exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas. Following this declaration, the Petroleum Council received two requests for licenses to drill for oil. It eventually awarded the license to Genie Energy, headed by Effie Eitam, once Minister of Infrastructure in Sharon’s government, a former head of the National Religious Party, and a leader of the settler movement and the extreme right. The English-language Wikipedia site makes no mention of the connection that Genie Energy’s founder, Howard Jonas, now a senior partner in the firm, has with the religious-Zionist movement. This quaint little fact can only be discovered by reading Wikipedia in Yiddish. There it states that Jonas became religious later in life and studied in Jerusalem, and that he supports the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Nahal IDF units and various projects to “settle the land.” If Obama were to read that article, he would also learn that Jonas is a donor to the Republican Party.

Last January, Israel took another step to advance its ownership of the Golan Heights. The District Council for Planning and Construction approved the construction of a 400-dunam [around 99 acres] wind farm to produce “green” energy. The farm would be constructed by kinetic energy companies headed by entrepreneur Isaac Sutton.