fbpx

Netanyahu signs clause advancing natural gas deal

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed ahead with a deal to develop a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea despite objections by government regulators.
[additional-authors]
December 17, 2015

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pushed ahead with a deal to develop a natural gas field in the Mediterranean Sea despite objections by government regulators.

Netanyahu on Thursday invoked a legal clause that will allow two companies, Texas-based Noble Energy and the Israeli Delek Group, to retain majority control of the Leviathan field for 10 years after the gas begins flowing in exchange for reducing its holdings in three other fields.

Netanyahu pressed ahead with the deal despite objections by the country’s Anti-Trust Authority, which ruled that the consortium developing Leviathan could be a monopoly. Israel’s antitrust commissioner resigned earlier this year in protest of the plan.

To approve the deal, Netanyahu, who also serves as the economy minister after the resignation of Aryeh Deri over the issue, invoked Clause 52 of the Restrictive Trade Practices Law, which allows the economy minister to approve a monopoly if it is a matter of national security.

“We came today to provide gas to Israel, to the Israeli economy, to the Israeli citizens,” Netanyahu said at a signing ceremony. “The gas has been given to us as a gift from God. Found in the deep sea, it gives us huge gas reserves. It makes us a potential, if not an actual energy power, certainly a major international force.”

Leviathan, discovered in 2010 in the Mediterranean Sea west of Haifa, is estimated to hold 16 trillion to 18 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Thousands of Israelis have protested the deal on a regular basis and called for the gas fields to be nationalized, concerned that the gas consortium will keep prices high and agree to export much of the gas.

The opposition Zionist Union party on Thursday said it would ask Israel’s Supreme Court to void the use of Clause 52 to advance the gas deal.

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

Who Knows?

When future generations tell your story and mine, which parts will look obvious in hindsight? What opportunities will we have leveraged — and decisions made — that define our legacy?

You Heard It Here First, Folks!

For over half a decade, I had seen how the slow drip of antisemitism, carefully enveloped in the language of social justice and human rights, had steadily poisoned people whom I had previously considered perfectly reasonable.

Trump’s Critics Have a Lot Riding on the Iran Conflict

Their assumptions about the attack on Iran are based on a belief in the resilience of an evil terrorist regime, coupled with a conviction that Trump’s belief in the importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance is inherently wrong.

Me Llamo Miguel

With Purim having just passed, I’ve been thinking about how Jews have been disguising ourselves over the years.

The Hope of Return

This moment calls for moral imagination. For solidarity with the Iranian people demanding dignity. For sustained support of those who seek a freer future.

Stranded by War

We are struggling on two fronts: we worry about friends and family, and we are preoccupied with our own “survival” on a trip extended beyond our control.

Love Letters to Israel

Looking around at the tears, laughter, and joy after two years of hell, the show was able to not just touch but nourish our souls.

Neil Sedaka, Brooklyn-Born Hit-Maker, Dies at 86

Neil Sedaka was born March 13, 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Mac and Eleanor Sedaka. His father was Sephardic and his mother Ashkenazi; Sedaka was a transliteration of the Hebrew “tzedakah.”

Letter to the UC Board of Regents on Fighting Antisemitism

We write as current and former UC faculty, many of us in STEM fields and professional schools, in response to the release of When Faculty Take Sides: How Academic Infrastructure Drives Antisemitism at the University of California.

Shabbat in a Bunker

It turned out that this first round of sirens was a wake-up call, a warning that Israel and America were attacking – so we could expect a different day of rest than all of us had planned.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.