Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
from importing oil from its immediate neighbors, so Israel depends on Russia and the former
Soviet republics for most of its petroleum.
Beginning in the 1950s, the government encouraged exploration for oil and gas, but the ef-
fort did not yield any signifi cant fi nds. Israelis joked that Moses took the Israelites in the wrong
direction after he led them out of Egypt, turning left into Canaan rather than right into what is
now petroleum-rich Saudi Arabia. In fact, however, there are large reserves of natural gas off
Israel's Mediterranean coast, created over the millennia by organic matter carried by Egypt's
Nile River into the sea and up the coast.
The fi rst major fi nd occurred in 1999, when the Yam Thetis group found reserves of natu-
ral gas amounting to 1.236 trillion cubic feet (35 billion cubic meters) in the Mediterranean
near Ashkelon at the Mari B and Noa fi elds. A decade later, considerably larger discoveries
were made in Israeli waters 56 miles (90 kilometers) offshore from Haifa. The Tamar fi eld is
estimated to contain about 211.88 trillion cubic feet (6 trillion cubic meters) of gas, enough to
supply Israel's needs for the next two decades. Mari B, where production began in 2004, will
probably run dry by 2012 or so, at which point planners are counting on the Tamar fi eld to
take its place. In 2010, by far the largest fi eld in Israel was discovered. Called Leviathan, it is es-
timated to hold 16 trillion cubic feet (453 billion cubic meters) of gas and could supply Israel's
domestic needs for the next six decades. The fi nd is so extensive that Israel could, if it chooses,
become a major gas exporter.
Starting in 1995, before the fi rst domestic reserves were identifi ed, Israel embarked on a
long-term program to boost its gas consumption by 2014 to 40 percent of the total energy
used, replacing much of its imported coal. The reason for the program is that building gas-
fi red power stations is relatively cheap, and the plants themselves take up little space. Unlike
coal-burning plants, which must be built close the shore to receive the imported coal from
ships, gas plants can be sited anywhere. Gas, however, is transported most cheaply and ef-
fi ciently by pipeline, so a critical part of Israel's gas program includes a network of pipelines
carrying gas from the wells to power plants and big industrial users.
Big new natural gas discoveries off the Mediterranean coast may make Israel a major ex-
porter, as well as replacing imports from Egypt, jeopardized by sabotage attacks on the pipe-
line and political hostility after that country's 2011 revolution.
AGRICULTURE AND KIBBUTZIM
In the state's early days, oranges were the economy's fl agship product and the sturdy
kibbutznik
(kibbutz resident) was the archetypal Israeli. Even if the kibbutzim did not as a rule grow
citrus, Jaffa oranges were Israel's biggest export, and collective agriculture was the focus of eco-
nomic development. The immigrants in the fi rst wave arriving in Israel after 1948 were settled
as much as possible in kibbutzim or in other collective settlements, called moshavim; in these
the land is held privately for the most part but the purchase of supplies and the sale of produce
are done by the community.
Farming accounted for about 17 percent of employment in 1950. Only later in the 1950s,
when it became evident that the agricultural sector could not generate enough jobs and hous-
ing for all the arrivals, did the government's focus turn to industry. The decision was a wise
one, for agriculture has grown more effi cient, reducing the number of jobs in the sector even
