Israel is adjacent to an incredibly strategic shipping location - the Suez Canal. The Suez Canal links the Mediterranean to the Indian Ocean without having to go around Africa or around Siberia.
Israel isn't strategically important because it has big oil reserves. It's strategically important because it's near a lot of important things. Oil and shipping play a bigger role than you'd think.
More than 1200 mg of pure THC, or 1200mg of cannabis leaves?
Those aren't even remotely the same thing, in the same way that 12oz of beer and 12oz of everclear are very different, or 1g of pure nicotine is very different than 1g of tobacco leaves.
Not to mention, LD50 is about a single dose. There's a big difference between taking one shot an hour for 16 hours straight, and chugging 16 shots in one go.