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http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/richard_silverstein/2008/04/israels_tehran_connection.html

Israel's Tehran connection.
Richard Silverstein, April 4, 2008 12:00 PM

Israel, while supposedly observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian,
is happily buying Iranian oil.

If you've ever wondered about the definition of hypocrisy you'll find the answer right here.

Last month the Swiss foreign minister visited Iran and, together with President Ahmadinejad,
attended the signing of a multi-billion euro contract for Iran to supply Switzerland with large
amounts of natural gas over the next 25 years.

The US State Department immediately condemned the deal and said it would be investigating whether it
breached the Iran Sanctions Act. Israel complained too, describing the Swiss minister's visit to
Tehran as an "act unfriendly to Israel". Various Jewish groups also joined in the protests,
including the World Jewish Congress.

This righteous indignation was entirely predictable but more than a little odd nevertheless. On
March 30, the Swiss newspaper Sonntag retaliated with the revelation that Israel, supposedly
observing an ironclad boycott of all things Iranian, has been buying Iranian oil for years.

"Israel imports Iranian oil on a large scale even though contacts with Iran and purchasing of its
products are officially boycotted by Israel. Israel gets around the boycott by having the oil
delivered via Europe. A reliable Israeli energy newsletter, EnergiaNews, reported this last week
[March 18] ...

"EnergiaNews got the information about the Iran trade from sources with ties to the management of
Israeli Oil Refineries Ltd ... According to EnergiaNews the Iranian oil is liked in Israel because
its quality is better than other crude oils.

"The report by EnergiaNews editor Moshe Shalev states that the Iranian oil reaches various European
ports, mainly in Rotterdam. It is bought by Israelis and the necessary European bill of lading and
insurance papers are supplied. Then it is transported to Haifa in Israel. The importer is the
Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Co (EAPC), which keeps its oil sources secret."

EAPC was established in 1968 as a joint Israeli-Iranian company to transport oil from Iran to
Europe. After the fall of the Shah, Iran ceased to play an active role in its affairs and there are
ongoing legal disputes between the two partners.

The Swiss report continued:
"It is not clear if the Iranian exporters know about Israeli purchases of their oil. At the other
end, the Israeli buyers and governmental offices are well aware of where the high-grade oil comes
from, although it is a blatant defiance of the boycott. The EnergiaNews article even made it through
Israeli censorship, which asked only for some changes in the text. The fact that the report cleared
the censors increases the credibility of the information. In the past, such reports were forbidden.

"When questioned by Sonntag, an energy expert of one of the leading Israeli papers confirmed the
EnergiaNews report: Israel has been importing Iranian oil for many years. The expert stressed,
however, that the purchases were made on the free market and not directly from Iran."

Sonntag quoted a spokesman for Oil Refineries Ltd as denying that his company imports and processes
Iranian oil. However, Sonntag pointed to a report in Haaretz newspaper last October which said that
an Israeli energy company called Paz would be refining Iranian oil and supplying it to the
Palestinian Authority from the start of this year.

This begs the question: if Iran is, as Bibi Netanyahu argues, an existential threat to Israel, why
does the government allow such trade? Would Israel have the US attack Iran's nuclear programme and
provoke a potential region-wide conflict while it cannot seem to wean itself from high quality
Iranian crude? You'd think if Israelis are cowering in fear from an Iranian bomb and the arch
antisemite Ahmadinejad, they wouldn't want to trade with such an enemy.

When is a boycott not a boycott? When it's in your naked economic interest to circumvent it,
apparently. But one should ask: if Israel doesn't honour its self-declared boycott of Iran, why
should the rest of the world honour its boycott of Hamas and Gaza? If Israel doesn't honour its own
boycott, then why should members of Congress vote with AIPAC when it proposes a measure that even
Israel honours only in the breach?

It's interesting to note from a discussion (in Hebrew) on the Kedma website that Israel does not
formally define Iran as an "enemy nation" and therefore in a strictly legal sense such trade is
permissible. Ironically, Iran too has a boycott against Israel in place and is violating its own
measures in that regard. Furthermore, the same commenter notes that Israel last week dismissed
attempts to engage Syria in a diplomatic process as a failure because Syria refuses to renounce its
ties with Iran. Do I hear the word "hypocrisy"?

Jan Rasmussen