Far below the surface of the promised land, a hidden treasure lies. If it can be carefully liberated from the geological layer in which it is caught, it promises nothing less than to transform Israel’s economy.
It is called oil shale. And, along with Jordan, Israel just so happens to sit upon the world’s second largest deposits of the stuff, after the United States.
Oil shale deposits are overwhelmingly located outside conventional oil-rich areas such as the Middle East and North Africa.
So if safe, economic processes for extracting this alternative oil resource can be put into effect, dependence on the energy-exporting Middle East could gradually decline, in a dramatic transformation of the global economy, with Israel as a prime beneficiary.
Advocates say oil shale is an Israeli resource whose time has come, and are adamant that it can be realized without negative environmental consequences. But critics cite fears of underground fires, contaminants seeping into air and water, even seismic rifts.
With a few exceptions, the battle over oil shale is being fought away from the headlines. It will come to a head in the Jerusalem Regional Planning Authority, a body headed by an Interior Ministry bureaucrat, which in the next few months will decide whether to authorize a pilot project to extract shale oil in the Elah Valley, south of Beit Shemesh.