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Israel's Emergence As Energy Superpower Making Waves
By Walter Russell Mead
Key points below. See link for further details, among them Vladimir Putin in a yarmulke praying at the Wailing Wall.
Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir famously lamented that Moses led the children of Israel for forty years of wandering in the desert until he found the only place in the Middle East where there wasn't any oil.

But could Moses have been smarter than believed? Apparently the Canadians and the Russians think so, as both countries are moving to step up energy relations with a tiny nation whose total energy reserves some experts now think could rival or even surpass the fabled oil wealth of Soddy Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in their national face...
Actual production is still miniscule, but evidence is accumulating that the Promised Land, from a natural resource point of view, could be an El Dorado: inch for inch the most valuable and energy rich country anywhere in the world. If this turns out to be true, a lot of things are going to change, and some of those changes are already underway.

OPEC's power to dictate world prices is likely to decline as Canadian, US, Israeli and Chinese resources come on line. In fact, the Gulf's most powerful oil weapon going forward may be the ability of those countries to under-price rivals; expensive shale oil isn't going to be very profitable if OPEC steps up production of its cheap stuff.
Iran can't -- their extract able oil reserves are running out using current technology, and they haven't the money or the skill to upgrade...
Another big loser could be Turkey.
An outcome devoutly to be wished.
For years the Kemalist, secular rulers of Turkey worked closely with Israel, and the relationship benefited both sides. Under the Islamist AK party, that relationship gradually deteriorated.

But if Israel really does emerge as a great energy power, and a Russia-Greece-Cyprus-Israel energy consortium does in fact emerge, Turkey's ambitions to play a larger role in the old Ottoman stomping ground of the eastern Mediterranean basin will have suffered a significant check.

The US-Israeli relationship will also change. Some of this may already be happening. Prime Minister Netanyahu's evident lack of worry when it comes to crossing President B.O. may reflect his belief that Israel has some new cards to play.
Or at least will soon have new cards. In the meantime, he knows exactly what President Obama is, and how the honourable gentleman is constrained by an Israel-loving Congress. While he may personally feel less constrained to appease the electorate after the election -- win or lose -- he will still have to work with or around Congress.
An energy-rich Israel with a lot of friends and suitors is going to be less dependent on the US than it has been -- and it is also going to be a more valuable ally.
Posted by: trailing wife 2012-07-03
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=347663