In a revelation that’s getting a lot of play in the Israeli press but remarkably little in the United States, Secretary of State John Kerry is revealed to have been using his post to push Israel on issues of natural gas policy in ways which would have bolstered Noble Energy, a company which at the time he owned roughly $1 million in stock in.
Noble Energy and its partner Delek have been under intense pressure in Israel for having formed an effective monopoly on the nation’s natural gas, controlling the nation’s sole import facility as well as having a majority interest in its two large offshore gas fields, Tamar and Leviathan.
Israel’s antitrust commissioner had been pushing the government to move against the monopoly, which prompted Kerry to call Netanyahu and urge him to follow through on a plan to retroactively “forgive” the monopoly, telling Netanyahu it was important for Israel to have a “consistent regulatory environment.”
State Department officials, under Kerry’s watch, actually spent years convincing Israel to set up a plan to allow Noble and Delek to export some 40% of the gas produced at the offshore sites, and even helped broker deals with Jordanian and Egyptian importers to buy it.
The deal is increasingly in regulatory limbo, however, related to uncertainty about the partnership’s monopoly status, and calls from Israeli officials to see to it that the gas industry has more competition and lower domestic prices.
The debate is vitally important within Israel, and many are seeing US interests in the deal as skewing Israeli policy. It could be, in the case of Secretary Kerry, that this interest is more personal than anyone had realized at the time.
Well, that's new: the US is skewing Israeli policy. Perhaps an improvement on Israel's screwing US policy.
Need I be surprised?
Israel's gas bonanza should be used to replace US aid. Since it can afford to pay its own bills, it should. Instead it seems it will be used to further enrich Gigilo John who is no slouch when it comes to not paying bills, like a tax assessment on the yacht he had built in NZ [no made in America with American wages for him]. He was famed around Boston for his curious assumption that a restaurateur would treasure his signature on a a tab more than they would the money. The bum was always flat broke before marrying money and since then his net worth has ballooned to 9 figures, all extracted from the Heinz estate. He generously tosses quarters around with the ease that you flip manhole covers for a heads or tails decision. Used to live a couple hundred feet from him on Beacon Hill. He was not an esteemed or popular neighbor. Ultra snobby. Am sure the most common name for him would get zapped by whatever program deletes dirty words here.
But you can forget about the American people hearing about this or if they should, understanding the problems this entails. As long as it doesn't interfere with American Ninja or The Voice, it don't matter to them. It's just the stuff the "elite" do because they have the money.
Kerry was personally invested in Israel? He owned a big piece of their proudest new boast, their offshore gas?
Well, we knew he wasn't impartial. However, I don't see how this makes him anti-Israel. What do they want, divestment? BDS?
I don't see why anybody would get their panties in a twist over this. Uncle Sam's top officials have been sales agents for Boeing, Raytheon, and Lockheed for decades – why shouldn't the energy sector get in on the fun?
Perhaps folks can recall the Bush administration. Condi Rice had an oil tanker named after her. Darth Cheney ran an oil services company. W himself managed to run several oil companies into the ground. The White House was a wholly-owned subsidiary of the oil industry, and nobody seemed too concerned…
This is not the conflict of interest you try to make this out to be.
He is making sure the Israelis sell their gas at market prices
Remember when a man called Suddam Hussien tried to sell his oil below market prices?
Futhermore he acquired two customers for Israeli gas that nobody wants to buy.
Kerry is giving Israel cover, which should surprise nobody.
You will see the difference when the Lebanese issue their leases and start drilling in the same gas fields. They will have customers that will refuse to buy from Israel. Israel will try to lower their prices and the next war over market stability will be on.