Haaretz: Israel’s bridge to the Arab world: Palestinian natural gas?

Ariel Ezrahi, the energy adviser to Quartet representative Tony Blair, is no politician, but he can’t help but provide some of the Quartet’s political thinking on Israel’s recent natural gas export agreements with its neighbors.

“We asked the Egyptians about their [natural] gas contract with the partners in the Leviathan field, and they claimed that it was only a nonbinding agreement in principle. In their press release, the Jordanians also noted that alongside the agreement in principle with Leviathan, they intend to buy gas from the reservoir near Gaza — and that’s not by chance,” Ezrahi says.

“You have to put yourself in the shoes of the foreign governments and understand that it’s very hard for them to sign a gas contract with Israel despite their desperate need. They’re between a hammer and an anvil in light of the TV pictures of Jerusalem burning. If I were Israel’s prime minister, I’d think how I could help the neighboring countries extricate themselves from the jam, and if Israel closes the Palestinian gas market, that’s not a smart thing.”
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