RUTHFULLY YOURS

By David Isaac

“The sense of ‘dependence’ on the United States has time and again
sapped the will of Israeli leaders and dictated to them a retreat from
positions long and sincerely held, an abandonment of tested national,
and rational, axioms basic to Israel’s security,” wrote Shmuel Katz in
“Purse String Tangles” (November 12, 1982).

Shmuel often wrote about the pernicious effects of Israel’s sense of
dependence on the United States. He would have been delighted to hear
about the recent natural gas discoveries off Israel’s coast, which are
poised to make Israel energy independent.

Last month, an enormous natural gas field aptly named ‘Leviathan’ was
discovered off the coast of Israel by an energy consortium led by an
Israeli billionaire. The field contains an estimated 15 trillion cubic
feet of gas.

The find follows closely the discovery of another field named ‘Tamar,’
one estimated at 8.4 trillion cubic feet. Uzi Landau, Minister of
National Infrastructure said that field alone could “supply all our
needs for the next 50 to 70 years.”

But it’s the Leviathan field, 6.5 times the size of Tel Aviv and
double the size of the Tamar prospect, that has everyone talking and
will position Israel as a gas exporter.

The sea gave Israel a great deal of trouble recently in the form of
the Turkish-sponsored flotilla. Happily, the sea is making up for it.
Until now, Israel was facing a looming energy crisis as its
fast-growing population was putting pressure on its supply. Israel’s
options were limited, with perhaps the best being a joint project to
construct a subsea pipeline with Turkey. Chances for that sunk after
the flotilla incident.

As Gal Luft, executive director of the Institute for the Analysis of
Global Security, explains in a recent column, “This discovery may
provide Israel with security in terms of its supply of electricity,
turn it into an important natural gas exporter and provide a shot in
the arm of some $300 billion over the life of the field –
one-and-a-half times the national GDP – to the Israeli economy,
already one of the most resilient in the world.”

Luft suggests that Israel could create an energy corridor linking
Israel to the Indian sub-continent. “Ironically, the biggest casualty
of such an energy corridor will be none other than Turkey, which now
enjoys an unchallenged status as an energy bridge between East and
West. Energy transit fees are an important source of income to the
Turkish economy,” Luft writes.

This would have been music to Shmuel’s ears.