By: Claire Bernish / The Free Thought Project  After concluding the flow testing phase, Afek Oil and Gas will now begin analyzing samples drawn from the Ness-2 drilling site, euphemistically dubbed "Deborah's Well," in the Israeli-occupied region of Syria known as the Golan Heights. New Jersey-based Genie Energy, Ltd., Afek's parent company, claims a dubious cadre of investors cum war profiteers, including Rupert Murdoch, Dick Cheney, Lord Jacob Rothschild, James Woolsey — as well as a number of current and former U.S. politicians.

Prior testing at a separate Afek site did not meet expectations, so the company sought other "sweet spots" in the area. Analysis of samples from additional wells will be performed by Afek scientists in conjunction with "external international experts."

To understand U.S. involvement in the quagmire in Syria, Afek's oil exploration is of critical import.

Israel's occupation of the Golan Heights region violates international law — thus, Israeli permits granting Afek the ostensible right to perform exploratory tests of a possible "large reservoir" of natural gas and light oil is also illegal. But in a world where Big Oil remains powerful enough to drive foreign policy of the U.S. empire, this direct violation of the Geneva Convention might not even be worthy of a footnote — except to the people of Syria.

In fact, as The Free Thought Project's Justin Gardner previously reported, the unsavory character heading Genie Oil is none other than Efraim "Effie" Eitam, an Israeli military commander and former Knesset member who once called for the expulsion of the "cancer" of Arabs from Israel.

"Expel most of the Judea and Samaria Arabs from here," Eitam arrogantly asserted during a soldier's memorial service in 2006. "We cannot be with all these Arabs and we cannot give up the land because we have already seen what they do there. Some of them may be able to stay under certain conditions, but most of them will have to go."

In addition to the eyebrow-raising cabal of Eitam, Murdoch, Cheney, and Rothschild, Genie Oil and Gas appointed new members to its Strategic Advisory Board last September, including:

"Dr. Lawrence Summers, 71st Secretary of the Treasury under President Clinton and Director of the National Economic Council under Pres. Obama; former Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, who is credited with helping pass the U.S.-Israel Energy Cooperation Bill while she chaired the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; former governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, who became an energy insider after serving as the Clinton administration's Energy Secretary; and former Director of Central Intelligence, R. James Woolsey, who co-founded the U.S. Energy Security Council."