Missing the Point Completely

This article notes that Israel appears to have made significant discoveries in offshore natural gas, but that access to foreign markets will be difficult:

Israel can look forward to long-term energy security after the discovery of a huge off-shore natural gas field but obstacles lie ahead in exporting its output, experts said Thursday.

Israel will find it hard to secure foreign buyers as European gas consumption is weakening while competition is stiff in the expanding Asian market, they said.

Texas-based Noble Energy and its Israeli exploration partners described Wednesday the Leviathan prospect -- 130 km (80 miles) off the Mediterranean port of Haifa -- as the world's biggest gas find in the past decade

This misses the reality of the situation.

When one looks at oil exporting nations, with the exception of Norway, the truth is that it does not bring prosperity to the masses, nor does it make for a better society.

Simply put, Israel should not plan to export the gas in any significant quantity.

First, from a defense perspective, the natural gas serves as a way to achieve energy independence in the relatively short term, and exporting the gas diminishes this.

Secondly, natural gas is the raw material for much of the petrochemical industry, and this could be used to establish such an industry in Israel. A focus on exports would serve to subvert the development of this industry and the additional profits, and jobs, that they would create.