Israel Is Back in the Gas Business. Thanks, Putin

Out goes climate change, in comes fill’er-up: Energy Minister Karine Elharrar abruptly reverses Israel’s freeze on oil and gas exploration

I have to admit that when Energy Minister Karine Elharrar makes a U-turn, she does so with incredible finesse.

Just six months ago Elharrar had ordered a one-year freeze on new exploration for natural gas in Israeli waters in order to focus the ministry’s efforts on renewables. Fears of climate change and gas’ contribution to it were behind the decision, and many assumed the suspension would become permanent. On Monday, however, Elharrar announced she had approved a new auction for gas exploration licenses.

If your entire knowledge of the issue was confined to the official press statement, you wouldn’t know she had just changed direction at all.

Elharrar never mentioned that she ordered a freeze; nor did she engage in the “drill, baby, drill” ranting of fossil fuel enthusiasts. Rather, Elharrar spoke about a “genuine and sincere concern about the events taking place in Europe,” Israel’s “energy security” and of “diversification of our sources of energy” and tipped her hat to “investment in renewable energies.”

So what caused Elharrar to change mind so quickly? The answer, of course, is the war in Ukraine, which has upended global energy markets and caused the world to reconsider all the energy calculations it had made prior to February 24, including the urgency of saving the planet from climate change apocalypse.

For Israel, the relevant part of all this upheaval is that Europe is determined to wean itself off Russian gas and oil. But to do that, it has to find alternative sources, and there aren’t a whole lot of them.

Israel isn’t going to save Europe with its gas any more than it can save Ukraine with Iron Dome or by impounding oligarch’s yachts. But Israel can be helpful to Europe, in partnership with the other East Mediterranean gas producers, Egypt and Cyprus.