On the same week in which a former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is headed for a stint in prison, the current prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is testifying before the Supreme Court regarding a petition to strike down a major deal between his government and at least two major conglomerates to start operating Israel’s rich, recently discovered, off-shore natural gas fields. Netanyahu is accused of doing an end run around the law, when he forced the resignation of Antitrust Commissioner David Gilo last May, because the latter was objecting to a 2014 deal with Delek and Noble Energy.
With the pesky commissioner out, Netanyahu went about protecting the deal by using Article 52 of the Antitrust Law, which empowers the economy minister to override the antitrust commissioner’s ruling and permit a monopoly to operate in Israel if it is done for security reasons. To that end he exchanged the Economy Ministry with MK Aryeh Deri (Shas) for the latter’s old post at the Interior Ministry, took the Economy Ministry for himself and in that role invoked Article 52.
It was the mother of all political maneuvers, and it left many in Israel with gaping mouths, followed by gnashed teeth. Which brings us to Netanyahu’s Sunday’s testimony before the high court. His entire testimony could be summed up as one big attack against the former antitrust commissioner, who failed to understand the truly crucial aspects of these new gas deposit treasures, and focused only on the antitrust aspects.
Time and again, Netanyahu repeated his objection to Gilo’s decision to reject the original draft compromise. “The commissioner created a severe crisis in the gas market, forcing me to get involved to restore confidence in the government’s ability to promote the economy.
“We must have international faith in us, the trust of corporations, of banks, of countries. Over the past few years, unfortunately, we’ve lost this trust. [But} over the past few weeks it appears that we succeeded in restoring it.”
And one of the reason for that loss of faith, according to the PM, “is the regulatory turbulence that we created with our own hands. I thought there was a need to get involved in this matter because I saw that no [investors] were coming in. Now they’re coming and they’re interested.”
Netanyahu admitted that using Article 52 was an extraordinary step, but argued it was justified in light of the geopolitical damage the delays in concluding the gas deal were causing. He gave one example: there was a long-term deal being concluded with Jordan, to provide Israel’s poor, next door neighbor with an attractive deal that could go a long way to boost its economy. But when the commissioner rejected the drilling deal, it led to the killing of the supply deal with Jordan. This was a blow to the tiny Jordanian economy, even as that country is trying to deal with caring for a million Syrian refugees. It was also a lost opportunity for Israel to tighten its own relationship with Jordan.
Indeed, as soon as Netanyahu jumped into the fray and secured the Delek-Noble deal, Turkey, the Europeans, Egypt, Cyprus and Greece all became interested.
The high court allowed Netanyahu to essentially carry a speech, beginning to end, did not interrupt him and did not follow with questions. It may suggest that the justices have already decided to reject the opposition’s appeal, or it may reflect the court’s discomfort of having a direct confrontation with the executive branch of government.