Israel has had plenty of issues and enemies. Israel faces Iran’s nuclear threats, the Palestinian crisis, the Syrian war, growing regional instability and biggest of all Israel is a spiritually lost nation. However, God does not break his promises and he is fulfilling another promise to bless Israel. Israel is on the brink of becoming energy independent and a major oil and natural gas exporter.
The Jewish state has more than just military superiority in the Middle East: her economic prospects and political power are now on the rise, thanks to the vast fields of natural gas and oil discovered in the deep waters between Israel and Cyprus over the last five years.
Israel may be popping the champagne, but clearly her political foes and economic competitors are not. One of them is Russian President, Vladimir Putin. Israel’s burgeoning oil and natural gas wealth are expected to undermine Putin’s efforts to rebuild Russia’s influence in the Middle East, and weaken his current strong energy hand in Europe.
Tamar and Leviathan promise Israel an unprecedented degree of energy independence and a lucrative export market to its Arab neighbors, including Egypt and Jordan. And they threaten to challenge Russian energy giant Gazprom’s dominance of the European gas market. That dominance has been one of the lynchpins of Putin’s power. Gazprom provided Europe almost one-quarter of its total natural gas needs in 2013 and that need is inevitably going to grow. Europeans know they pay Gazprom a sifnificant premium 2 1/2 times Americans pay for gas.
They also know Russia’s not afraid to use its gas exports as blackmail. Putin severed the supply lines to Ukraine in 2009. The Green Parties won’t let Europeans extract their own natural-gas reserves through fracking, so countries of the European Union (EU) have been resigned to letting Putin hold a whip over their energy needs, and their economies.
Israel’s exports are most likely to be in the form of liquefied natural gas or LNG, which would be safer than using pipelines that terrorists can damage. This would be welcome energy news for the EU countries. Of course, Russia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are the losers in this equation.
Gazprom gets 40 percent of its revenues from Europe, Gazprom officials are worried about their revenue stream. Gazprom officials have made offers to help Israel develop the Leviathan field, however, Israel's current chief partner is Houston-based Noble Energy. Early last year Gazprom negotiated a contract to liquefy some of the gas coming from the Tamar field.
The Tamar export deal between Israel and Russia is now all but dead. An Australian challenger with major LNG expertise, Woodside Petroleum, has just agreed to take a 25 percent stake in Leviathan development, however, the Israeli government is still working out how much gas it wants to export, and what to reserve for home consumption.
Israel's energy blessings are a challenge to Russia's European market and could cause a loss of influence in the Middle East. Israel is on the verge of becoming an energy super power.
Exporting gas to Egypt, Jordan, and even the Palestinian Authority ruffles the feathers of long term Arab sponsor Russia and more importantly oil and gas players Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Noble already has a contract with the Palestine Generating Power Co. to start providing fuel by 2017.
This might help smooth Israel’s relations with some of its neighbors but I doubt it will divert the Palestinian Authority aim to expunge all Jews from the Jewish state. Mahmoud Abbas has said many times he will not recognize a Jewish state in a permanent peace treaty.
Israel’s new gas bonanza offers a huge opportunity for the US and its allies in Europe. We or the Europeans could import oil from Israel, a long term, dependable strategic ally in the region.
So far Israel’s gain is Putin’s pain. It will be interesting to see how Russia proceeds based on Israel’s new natural resource blessings.
As for Israel’s Arab enemies, the energy stakes and territorial rights are being intensified. The Turks, for example, feels left out of the Eastern Mediterranean bonanza near Cyprus and Turkish ships have fired on Greek Cypriot oil platforms. This opened a door for Israel to sign a mutual defense pact with Greece.
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| The layout of the "Exclusive Economic Zones" |
| warships and subs of various nations keep a wary eye upon one another in the Eastern Med |
Israel, Turkey, Russia and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah are enhancing and increasing their naval capabilities in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey plans to spend a billion dollars to acquire advanced assault ships.
Although the entire area is generally volatile, one of the flash points at the moment is between Lebanon and Israel, which remain, formally, in a state of war. This enhances the spectacle of dispute over lines of demarcation between their 200-nautical-mile “exclusive economic zones.” (See map above)In addition, territorial claims overlaps by about 860 square kilometers (332 square miles) occur in a potentially rich portion of the Levant Basin. Intelligence analysts, however, downplay the Lebanese Hezbollah threat because Hezbollah lacks adequate naval resources. So for now oil drillers can proceed with Israeli and Greek military security and surveillance.
(Notice the Leviathan field is named after Satan)
The Levantine Basin was roughly defined in 2010 by the U.S. Geological Survey. It estimated that in this area there are some 122 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 1.7 billion barrels of oil or possibly twice as much. The basin runs from near the Syrian port of Tartus, which is also where the Russians have their naval base, down the entire coast of Lebanon, Israel and Gaza, and out toward Cyprus.
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| Noble Energy recently brought the Noa oil field on stream; Nathan Bedford Forrest the great Confederate General said He who gets there first with the most wins the battle; yellow platforms reflect "on stream" producers |
Political wrangling in the Middle East primarily between Israel and the Palestinians, prompted the pullout of British Company BG Group in 2007 and in 2008, BG shut its office in Israel. This was before the major gas discoveries. However joint exploration initiatives between Noble Energy out of Texas, Delek Group and other Israeli companies, resulted in major gas finds in 2009 and 2010. That included the huge Tamar field, which started producing in 2013, and the enormous Leviathan field, estimated to hold 18 trillion cubic feet of gas. Gas and oil discoveries are projected to meet Israel’s energy requirements for the next 150 years.
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| The modern state of Turkey with the location of ancient tribes or people |
The prophet Ezekiel wrote: “‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, Gog (Biblical scholars are divided over the identity of Gog. Is Gog Russia or Turkey? Personally, I lean towards the Turkish camp, see map above), chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army …’” (Ezekiel 38:3-4)
“On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people (Israel) —all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.” (Ezekiel 38:10-12)
The Bible prophesies that, one day, God will ‘put a hook’ in Magog's jaw to draw it down into Israel, where it will plan to ‘plunder and loot’ an ‘unsuspecting people’. I believe that Israel’s newly discovered natural gas fields and oil discoveries are the ‘hook’ that draws the invading force into Israel. Israel’s enemies will seek to plunder and loot in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The idea of a hook almost suggests an action that gives it no choice. God is using evil nations and people to discipline his “Chosen People”. You can read about this concept in the book of Habakuk. Russia, Turkey, Iran, the EU and the U.S. had better heed in Ezekiel’s prophecy:
“This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.
The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground. I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him (the anti-christ and his supporters) with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’” (Ezekiel 38:18-23)
Friends, with this Biblical knowledge of current events how are we to proceed?
God tells us in 1 Peter 4:7-10
7 But the end of
all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer. (the word sober
here means don’t panic because “End Times are approaching. Have faith in the
Lord, he has taken care of us all of our lives and he will continue to do so.)
8 And above all
things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the
multitude of sins. (Now is the time to extend love and charity to people,
especially to fellow Christians.)
9 Use
hospitality one to another without grudging.
10 As every man hath received the gift, even so
minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of
God. (God wants us to rely on him and not the world and minister one to
another. God wants us to use his "prepping", not the world's "prepping".)
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