Why Israel Wants The Strait of Hormuz To Be Closed

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:06]Good day. This is Demetri Lceris coming to you from Athens, Greece for Reason to Resist on May 12th, 2026.

[00:00:13]Uh at this moment I am standing on the conference level of a hotel in downtown Athens called the Brown Acropole Hotel.

[00:00:24]is a boutique hotel which I understand is owned by Israeli interests. Now you may be wondering given my attitude towards Israel and particularly its capitalist sector why in heaven's name I would be in this hotel today. Well the answer strangely enough is that a few weeks ago I received uh an invitation to a two-day conference being held here.

[00:00:49]the first day of which is today called uh the Med Mari 3 conference and it is built and is in fact uh an event uh that is designed to enhance deepen Israel's relationship with Greece politically, militarily and particularly from an economic perspective. Uh as the name suggests, this is the third annual conference uh that has been held under that name for this purpose. And uh the company that sent me an invitation here is some Israeli company I'd never heard of before called Benny Moran Productions.

[00:01:29]My best guess as to why I received this invitation is that last year I uh attempted to uh gain admission to this conference unsuccessfully as a member of the media. And so my name might have been included in some list of people who were interested in attending and they decided without doing any due diligence on me. I can't imagine they did uh that uh they might profit in some way from having somebody like me attend this conference. Uh, so I ended up having to buy the ticket and uh, when I looked at the lineup of speakers, I didn't hesitate to fork over the money, as painful as it was to pay anything towards an event that is designed to deepen relationships between Israel and Greece. But, uh, it was the only way that I could actually get access to the event and hear what was being said behind closed doors. And it it has in fact been an extraordinarily enlightening, if not utterly nauseating affair uh, up until now. Uh I've been here for 4 hours. Uh I have uh listened to speeches by the deputy foreign minister of Israel, Sharon Haskell, who came here uh according to a press release of the Israeli foreign ministry on a strategic mission to uh deepen Israel Greece relations and advance certain core projects which I'm going to come back to in a minute. I've listened to speeches by uh former officers in uh the uh Israeli Navy and Air Force who are now executives at Israeli aerospace industry. Uh I listened to the CEO of uh Israeli shipyards uh give a speech or at least speak as part of a panel. uh the Greek minister of tourism gave an absolutely uh vacuous and sickopantic speech towards Israel uh which I uh videotaped in full. Uh there was also the general secretary of the Greek Ministry of Defense and numerous other interesting figures. Uh so I'm now sitting in the uh I'll just swivel around so you can see all of these business types and political hacks have gathered here during a break to sip on whatever they're sipping and nibble on whatever they're nibbling and hobnob for the purpose of finding ways from profiting from this absolutely depraved and unconscionable relationship that has developed between Greece and uh Israel. As you can see behind me, this is an advertisement of Israeli Aerospace Industries over here. Uh Israeli uh I think this may be Elbert Systems showing off its stuff on some kind of propaganda video.

[00:04:17]Uh now there's again so much material that I've uh garnered from uh forcing myself to sit through the speeches today. it's going to be impossible for me to cover it uh in the space of one report and this is probably going to require several reports on my part uh which I'll try to publish over the next several days uh with the help of uh our team at Reason to Resist. But the one that I think is probably most pressing uh is a speech which I'm going to show you almost in its entirety. anything of importance and substance in it I'll include in this report by the head of BDO Israel Greece uh a character by the name of Chen Persog he's actually not the head he's the chief economist at uh the arm of the international accounting firm BDO that is charged with uh overseeing the business of BDO in both Israel and Greece apparently they have a department that's dedicated to relationships between these two countries. Uh and the reason why I think his speech should be the first one that I highlight here uh is because he talked in a very candid way about what is happening in the international oil markets and about uh the extraordinary risks that the global economy confronts.

[00:05:39]But he did it from the perspective of an Israeli. He almost was delighting in the fact that we are heading into an economic crisis. And uh this is this is a constant theme of people that I heard from here today that uh the closure of the straight of Hormuz uh is highlighting the need for something called IMC which is the India uh Middle East corridor. uh and at the center or near the center geographically speaking of this corridor, this new economic corridor that the genocidal maniacs in Israel are promoting is of course Israel itself and especially the port of Hifa, but not just the port of Hifa. And uh throughout this entire if I had if I had to say what was the overarching theme of the speeches that I've heard today uh it is that uh the closure of the straight of form proves how essential it is that the countries of the eastern Mediterranean and India develop as expeditiously as possible the India Middle East corridor which is kind of an alternative uh to the bricks uh and is clearly designed to enrich Israel and expand Israel's power throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond. And it's just amazing to me how readily the uh politicians of the conservative government of Kitty Misatakis have swallowed wholesale the idea that this is in the long-term strategic interest of Greece. You're going to, I think, clearly get that message uh through the various uh speeches or videos of the various speeches that I'm going to publish in the next few days uh from this event. But before I show you the uh remarkable and troubling uh commentary of you know the chief economist at BDO Israel Greece, I'm just going to take a little stroll around here so you can see some of the dirt banks who are uh pressing the flesh and looking for ways to profit from Israel's criminal behavior. Before I do that, let me just say a couple of things. First of all, I have not heard the words Palestine or Palestinians once today. I've listened to probably 20 people speak, including various ministers and deputy ministers of the Greek government. The Palestinian people did not come up once. Uh there was never any hint of criticism of what Israel is doing. And perhaps the most shocking commentary I saw, pro-Israel commentary I saw was a criate politician whose video whose speech I'm going to publish separately because it deserves its own report looking at the ambassador to Israel uh to Greece, the Israeli ambassador to Greece who was sitting in the front row at that moment beside the deputy foreign minister of Greece just a few meters away from me and saying to him, "Yes, it's going to cause a lot of suffering.

[00:08:37]We know it's going to cause a lot of suffering, but you've got to finish the job. Meaning, they need to revive the war uh the criminal war of aggression against Iran and uh presumably destroy the country, if not uh the entire region. That's what the criate politician said. He was absolutely convinced that no matter how much suffering this may cause to ordinary citizens, and you can be sure that these elite politicians themselves are not going to be the ones who are going to feel the economic pain of drastic increases in the price of oil and gas and other essential commodities. It's going to be ordinary workers, the middle class, and especially the poor and the working poor all around the world, including in Cypress, who are going to feel uh the disastrous effects of uh of of of this insane war of aggression. uh nonetheless he was this criate politician was eminently willing to inflict that punishment even on his own citizens in order to see Israel achieve its criminal objective of destroying the state of Iran. But as I say, I'm going to save that for a subsequent piece in this report. I'm going to focus on what I think is most urgent because of the uh unfolding crisis in the uh oil and gas markets and that is the commentary of the chief economist from Bo Israel Greece. Uh secondly uh before I show you that I'd like to just remind you if you're not already a subscriber to Reason to Resist, please become one. If you like this video, if you find it to be informative, please like and share it and help us to expand the reach of our unap unapologetic brand of resistance journalism. And finally, before I show you uh Chen Herzog's speech, this chief economist speech, I'm just going to take a little stroll around here uh with my camera in front of me so you can see some of the characters who are sliming away uh at this uh extraordinarily just distasteful event. First thing I'm going to do when I get out of here, frankly, is I'm going to I'm going to take a damn shower.

[00:10:35]>> Here we go. Let's take a tour, shall we?

[00:11:04]I'm sure.

[00:11:17]Alexandro.

[00:11:42]As you can see, the sponsors include the Israel Shipyard Industries, Israel Aerospace Industries, Manufacturers Association of Israel, Israeli Greece Chamber of Commerce.

[00:11:57]here. Of course, this PO now uh the second half of the this day has been dedicated to what they call B2B meetings. basically uh they're going to have more secure private meetings amongst politicians and business people to discuss specific ways in which they can advance IMAC the India Middle East uh corridor project uh and something else called the super duper connector I've got the name a little bit wrong now I'm being facitious but the super duper connector project which is like some huge uh electricity uh uh conveying cable from Israel to Cyprus and Greece. Uh that is another major theme of this uh project today. Of course, here you can see the Greek flag uh being disgraced by uh its placement beside the flag of the genocidal entity.

[00:13:11]And uh here's a whole bunch of other glad handlers, slimy business people, and political hacks hanging out uh during the pause in proceedings.

[00:13:30]If there is no fun in the business, there's no business. That's it.

[00:13:39]>> This guy just said, "If there's no fun in the business, there's no business."

[00:13:43]It's lots of fun promoting genocide, mass murder. Apparently here you can see the glad handlers and political hacks having more private sessions. Who knows what dirty business is being done here?

[00:14:06]Look at the dirtiness.

[00:14:14]All right.

[00:14:16]I don't see anything.

[00:14:43]Well, that's it, folks. Uh, that's all I can stand for one day.

[00:14:48]>> Bye.

[00:14:49]>> See you later. Uh, well, now I'll share with you what uh the chief economist for BO Israel Greece had to say today. And you know geopolitics and the economy were always interconnected especially in the terms of infrastructure and energy.

[00:15:08]And we believe that regional cooperation and regional interconnection is a real answer to this crisis and to these challenges and we in in BDO are committed to this uh vision. For us, regional cooperation is not only a vision, it's a reality. And I'm standing here today not only as partner and head of consulting in economic consulting of video Israel, but also as a partner in video Greece advisory, an advisory firm utilizing the mutual benefits of both countries. So for us this is really a vision and I what I want to discuss with you today is our insights from these crisis and when you examine the impact of this global energy and transit choke point choke point where about 20% of the global energy uh traffic goes and is now blocked. To understand the meaning and the magnitude of this crisis, you have to understand when we are talking about about 20% or 20 million barrels of of oil per day that are out of the energy supply that this some of the supply has been bypassed through interconnection through pipelines through the Yanu pipeline bypassing the straight of Hormuz etc. At the end of the day, we still have about 15% of the glo global supply disrupted.

[00:16:43]And to understand what it means, people ask me, okay, it's 50 million barrels a day. Can we cope with that? The answer is to understand the magnitude. If you remember COVID, if you remember 2020, we had numerous lockdowns. In 2020, the entire impact of COVID was reduction of oil demand of this magnitude 50 million bar per day. So to absorb this shortage it means we have to cut down transport and cut down activity to the level that the world imposed in COVID which is unmanageable. The only reason we keep on with relatively low impact or or manageable impact on energy prices is due to the fact that we are with the world is withdrawing is using strategic reserves of oil. We are using our strategic reserve. We have magnitude of reserve but this is time limited. The the time is against us. And as you as you can see in the long term we are illustrating here over 50 years of global energy markets. And you can see that this is not a one-time event.

[00:17:53]You can see that over the period we have numerous global or regional conflict that each of them in their way impact global energy prices uh uh from the Russia Ukraine war in 2022 uh back to the Iran Iraq war in 1980 or the war in 1973. Unfortunately, disruption of global commodity and oil markets is a recurring pattern which means that we know we we must utilize the answer for that from economic point of view and you have to understand it's not only the straight of horm if we examine global shipping routes we can understand that there are numerous global shipping choke points beyond hormones in our region at the Turkish trades control about 50,000 vessels that go through those traits per year. Not only oil, other commodities, other sources. This is a choke point. This is a risk point. The straight of Malika is a choke point is a risk point for traffic coming from the east to the west. So the global shipping and logistics is constrained by choke points. and what the moose crisis showed. We were all very concerned and rightfully so because of the risk of Iran's nuclear weapon. What we learned is that Iran's control of the strait of Hormuz creates a strategic threat that may be even greater in the shorter term.

[00:19:30]It's a real threat to the economy and arguing that the the the uh uh protection of this kind of threat is global cooperation and global connectivity and mutual cooperation. If we see what happens to the the prices of energy in the region, you can see all prices going up to 100 above $100 per ton per per barrel. You can see also European natural gas prices increasing by three times during this crisis. Now let's see what mutual and regional cooperation intercon interconnectivity can gain to the regions. Israel Israel is a natural gas exporter with significant sources of natural gas offshore. And you can see here the comparison of Israeli natural gas prices and the prices in in Europe. You can see that even during this crisis, even during the Ukraine war crisis, prices in Israel were much more sta stable energy security, energy redundancy provides resilience. Now, mutual trade, mutual interconnectivity can be a win-win. Can be a win-win to the region.

[00:20:47]It's a win-win for Israel. it would been for the for its neighbors.

[00:20:52]We are today at BDO working with the Israeli Ministry of Energy on a major strategic research to redefine and reassess Israel's fuel security uh as a result of the war. Now, of course, unfortunately, I cannot share with you our entire findings for this uh research, but I can share with you some of the high level some of our high level conclusions. And what I'm trying to suggest here today that East Mediterranean infrastructure cooperation is the lesson or is the answer to the hormonal crisis. from isolation we and from energy islands we have to move to cooperation and energy trade centers you know Israel is considered by many as a energy island but we're not really an island has many islands very beautiful islands Israel is not an island we are only an island if we choose to we if we do not develop regional interconnection and regional interconnection between Isra Israel, Cyprus, Greece can create mutual benefits, can create higher resilience and can create economic benefits. And this is what I want to discuss with you today. And and and I think it's very clear, you know, the EU directive, I think over 10 years ago said that the ability to trade in energy across borders provides sustainable, secure, and competitive supply. And I think it is very true also for the relations between Israel, Greece and Cyprus.

[00:22:35]And for us, Greece and Israel complement each other in terms of their energy systems. It's a power of contrast.

[00:22:45]Israel is a gas exporter. Greece is a gas importer.

[00:22:52]Greece has significant renewables, wind, hydro and and solar energy. Israel is solely reliant on solar energy in terms of renewable. Israel electricity prices are lower which creates ability to export electricity to Cyprus and and and in the future also to Greece. Israel is an electricity island and Greece is connected to the EU. risk. These contrast create opportunity. They create a way to connect those two energy systems and create mutual benefits. Uh Greece is very strong in renewable energy. You have over 50% of your energy produced by renewable energy. Israel is still lacks behind. We have a problem in this respect because of our land constraints and no hydro and limited wind potential. There is there is mutual potential for integration. On the other hand, Israel is an energy or a gas exporter. We are today exporting gas to our neighbors to Egypt and to Jordan.

[00:23:59]But we believe interconnection and and gas exports to the region can be utilized even beyond those neighboring countries. Uh the fuel mix of the region is different. Israel similar to Egypt has 75% of natural gas usage.

[00:24:15]electricity grid. Cypress on the other hand has has steel to shift from oil to gas. Cypress also has significant gas resources that can be and should be developed and interconnected within the regions pipelines going to Egypt and to other countries. Uh Greece can benefit of interconnection with those networks.

[00:24:37]So we believe that the the ultimate solution is power coupling is utilizing and interconnecting both gas grids and electricity grids. Now it's a challenge.

[00:24:52]I know it's a challenge and any anytime I present this map people come and and and and mention the challenges and I know and we are well aware of those challenges. They are economic challenges. They are geopolitical challenges. There are uh regional challenges, but when their economics work, the geopolitics at the end will prevail because at the end of the day, when we understand and I think part of the lesson from this war, from this conflict is that the cost of isolation, the cost of choke point is tremendous both from economic point of view and from strategic point of view. So I think we have no choice but to develop those interconnections despite the challenges and within those challenges and for and we and when we're talking about the broader context and we have that discussions later on today about the IMAC about the Indian Mediterranean corridor and my message is EMC before IMAC. Let's start with the east Mediterranean infrastructure corridor as a backbone for the IMC. We don't need to wait for the full IMAC to form regional cooperation. If we wait, we will uh we will not reach there. We can start with small steps with within power interconnect Israel grid Cyprus. That is something that we can do in a relatively short time. There are negotiations go going through. We examine the economics.

[00:26:29]It's an economic viable project. It can be done today. uh reinforce the strength of Greece Israeli energy cooperation in technology in inter and later on in interconnection water systems let's utilize the econ the the the regional and mutual benefits of of of water Israel is a leader in water dissalamination we are exporting water to Jordan we can export more we can use and and utilize our expertise in dissemination to advance dissemination technology in Greece gas pipeline. I think we can build the Israeli Cypress gas pipeline at the first step that could be the first step to the East Med pipeline going forward.

[00:27:14]We can strengthen regional shipping and trade lanes integrated logistic infrastructure. Let's act on that today.

[00:27:21]And we are here working with our partners in Greece, in Cyprus, in the region to examine to assess the economics and the profitability and the business case for each of these steps.

[00:27:33]We believe there is a very strong business case not only geopolitical but on also economics and with the right support of governments from both or three states I think we can build the east main pillars of today so that the corridor the corridor is ready for tomorrow. Thank you.