It’s the fossil fuel industry, Greta

Fellow climate activist Greta Thunberg is on her way to Gaza, again, to create a counterproductive spectacle. Like so many others, I was moved when, at just 15 years old, she sat alone outside the Swedish parliament and sparked a global movement for climate justice. Greta mobilized millions – me included – inspired governments, and put the fossil fuel industry on the defensive. That was her gift. While I share her concern for civilians in Gaza, this flotilla stunt is the opposite of what she should be doing if she truly wants to promote peace and justice.

Because Israel is not the enemy of the Palestinians. The real enemy – the one that bankrolls war, terror, bus shootings and despair – is the fossil fuel industry. There would not have been a massacre on October 7th, a devastating war in Gaza with civilian casualties or Israeli hostages if not for Iranian and Qatari petrodollars.

Oil is the lifeblood of conflict in the Middle East. For decades, revenues from oil and gas have enabled states like Iran and Qatar to finance terror groups. It is estimated that Iran directs around half of its oil revenue to its military. In 2025 alone, that was $23 billion. This money went to emboldening and arming Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis rather than feeding their people or educating for peace.

In the last two decades, petrodollars bankrolled nearly 20,000 missiles, rockets, and drones that have been fired at Israeli civilians – the ones actually developing the technology to solve the climate crisis. Israel is a world leader in climate tech, from alternative proteins to low-cost energy storage, nature-based climate solutions, and innovative water, solar and electric car technologies.

I was privileged to be on the White House lawn for the signing of the Oslo Peace Accords in 1993, which would have led to a Palestinian state or similar alongside Israel. Yet the Hamas bus bombings in Jerusalem – fossil-fueled Islamic terror – killed more than just Israeli civilians; they killed Oslo. (Just as Monday’s terror attack in Jerusalem may have killed the latest hostage deal.)

This is the central truth: fossil fuels don’t just destabilize the climate and development, they destabilize peace. Fossil fuels power humanitarian crises by financing wars, not only in Gaza but also throughout Africa, the Middle East and Ukraine. In Sudan alone, more than 150,000 civilians have been killed and 14 million displaced in a war funded largely by fossil fuels.

Humanitarian aid, while it is necessary and should be increased, addresses only the tragic symptoms of this deeper disease. Climate action, on the other hand, strikes at the DNA of most conflicts. Effective climate action could end most of the world’s wars, including in Gaza. That is why Greta’s original fight mattered so much, not just for people and planet, but also for peace. By forcing the world to confront the dangers of coal, oil, and gas, she gave us a vision of a safer, more sustainable, and more just future.

No wars are fought over solar power, nor are they bankrolled by it. No rockets are launched with wind energy. No one kills in the name of geothermal energy. Fossil and nuclear energies are the energies of war; solar energy is the power of peace and the most powerful tool we have to avert endless cycles of tragic conflicts around the world.

Related: Israeli solar-run machines that convert air to drinking water still working in Gaza

And here is where Israel comes in. Start-Up Nation is also Climate Nation. Israeli climate-tech has already done more humanitarian good for Gazans than any flotilla could. Quietly. Without cameras. By targeting Israel instead of the fossil fuel regimes that actually bankrolled the unspeakable terror that caused this heartbreaking Gaza war, Greta risks weakening, dividing and distracting the very movement she helped build. OPEC should give her an award, not the Nobel Peace Prize committee.

Greta, I admired you for years. You inspired me and countless others. But if you truly want an end to wars and suffering in the Middle East, then end the climate of hate against Israel and the Jewish people rather than fuel it. The Nobel Peace Prize, to be announced next month, should not be squandered on anyone promoting a myopic and misguided climate of hate in defense of fossil-fueled Islamic terror.

Let me know if you want to join forces on climate and peace, or if you prefer to sink with this Gaza flotilla stunt the very movement you helped launch.