Last December, after years of negotiations with private companies and arguments with opponents in the Knesset, Benjamin Netanyahu managed to conclude a deal to begin the exploitation of the natural-gas fields beneath Israel’s coastal waters. On Sunday, the deal was struck down by Israel’s supreme court. Jonathan Tobin warns of the possible consequences:
The bounty from the Tamar field, which has already begun producing natural gas, and the far bigger Leviathan site, on which development has not yet begun, had the potential to make Israel the world’s next energy superpower. [It held the] prospect of not only energy independence but also of a large export business that would [both] enrich the Jewish state [and] enable [the creation of] economic alliances . . . that would make it far more secure.
The only worry about all this was not whether the gas could be brought out or whether it would play a part in transforming Israel’s economy. [It] was whether Israel’s fractious political system and overregulated economy, and a judiciary and bureaucracy that seem most comfortable when stifling innovation and growth rather than enabling it, would find a way to gum up the works and stop the gas fields from being exploited. Unfortunately, we now have the answer to that question. . . .
[A] high court that recognizes no limits on its power to intervene wherever it likes without a shred of authority that is actually rooted in law . . . could doom Leviathan and expectations about Israel’s energy future.
Read more on Commentary: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/israel/how-a-court-sank-israels-economic-future/