HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL_HJS Friends of Israel Report FINAL.qxd 06/02/2014 09:55 Page 15 ADDED VALUE: ISRAEL’S STRATEGIC WORTH TO THE EU AND ITS MEMBER STATES Shimon Peres, President of Israel, left, with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council nion n U ea op r the Eu ncil of ou he C T © state: “the Greeks and Cypriots are beginning to speak energy potential, Europeans may soon no longer need of Israel as an incredible strategic asset”.93 to tolerate Arab instability and authoritarianism for Traditionally resource-poor, Israel is also poised to the sake of their fuel economies. become a major player in the oil market. Harold Those same critics insist that the moral duty to oppose Vinegar – a legendary, flamboyant former chief Israeli activity past the Green Line (the pre-1967 any scientist at Shell – moved to Israel from Houston, in armistice line) outweighs any strategic or economic 2008, determined to develop the oil-shale deposits in benefit that Europe reaps from working with the Israel’s Shfela Basin.94 That basin is estimated to hold country. That argument, too, is hollow: hundreds of 250 billion barrels of oil; if all of that oil were brought thousands of Palestinians work in Israeli enterprises to market, Israel would become the world’s in the West Bank, where they earn double what they third-biggest oil exporter, behind Saudi Arabia and would in the Palestinian economy.98 Venezuela.95As the Financial Times recently observed, “Israel is on the threshold of becoming a major In December 2013, Vitens, the largest Dutch water energy power in the Middle East – with potentially company pulled out of its contract with Mekorot, the game-changing consequences for geopolitics and Israeli national water carrier, because the latter operates beyond the Green Line.99 The timing was economic relations in a volatile region”.96 highly unfortunate: a day earlier, Israel had signed an European critics of Israel have long contended that agreement at the World Bank, for water co-operation working too closely with Jerusalem harms EU grand with Jordanians and Palestinians – an agreement in strategy by undermining links to the Arab world. Yet, which Mekorot was, naturally, a key signatory.100 As in 2013, the United States overtook Saudi Arabia as Uri Rosenthal, the former foreign minister of the the world’s top oil exporter,97 and, given Israel’s own Netherlands, remarked, “The Western European countries think they’re rendering the Palestinians a service; but they might want to think again.”101 93 Author interview, 6 December 2013. 94 David Horovitz, “Should Israel get oil out of Vinegar, for an energy revolution?,” The Times of Israel, 8 September 2013, available at: http://www.timesofisrael.com/should-israel-g 98 Khaled Abu Toameh, “Palestinians working in et-oil-out-of-vinegar-for- settlements earn double,” an-energy-revolution/ (accessed 20 November 2013). The Jerusalem Post, 22 April 2011, available at: 95 Ken Silverstein, “Israel’s Natural Gas Finds Win the World’s Notice,” http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Palestinians-working-in-settlements- Forbes, 11 April 2013, available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ earn-double (accessed 23 December 2013). kensilverstein/2013/04/11/israels-natural-gas-finds-win-the-worlds-notice/ 99 “Israel slams Dutch company for cutting water ties,” (accessed 6 November 2013). The Associated Press, 12 December 2013, available at: 96 John Reed, “Israel set to become major gas exporter,” Financial Times, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/business/economy/2013/12/12/ Israel-slams-Dutch-company-for-cutting-water-ties.h 6 November 2013 lable at: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/ tml , avai (accessed 18 December 2013). 82e01bda-4518-11e3-b98b-00144feabdc0.html?siteedition= intl#axzz2jr5Zp7yU (accessed 6 November 2013). 100 “Israel, Jordan, Palestinians ink water-sharing deal,” AFP, 9 December 2013, 97 “U.S. surges past Saudis to become world’s top oil supplier,” Reuters, available at: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/israel-jordan-palestinians- 15 October 2013, available at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/ sign-red-sea-dead-sea-080752216.html (accessed 18 December 2013). 10/15/us-oil-pira-idUSL1N0I51IX20131015 (accessed 10 November 2013). 101 Author interview, 17 December 2013. 13