Governments and leaders sometimes make reckless, stupid and irrational decisions, this is the way of the world.
Ministers and heads of state are also human beings and mistakes are commonplace.
But there are decisions and actions that are already in real time as clear as day that they are so great folly that it is hard to believe that they were taken by elected officials, such that the damage from them is inevitable and raises many question marks as to why it was decided to go in the first place.
A decision of this kind is the announcement by the Minister of Energy, Karin Elharar, about two months ago to stop granting licenses for new gas exploration off the coast of Israel.
It does not take unique strategic expertise or extraordinary diplomatic skill to conclude right now, against the backdrop of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, what the importance of natural gas is, what it means in the geopolitical game and how much it is a resource whose sum far exceeds the whole.
President Putin uses his gas reserves as a "suit of threats" against Western countries, which are immersed to the neck, with or without him, in an acute energy crisis.
The gas token dropped with the outbreak of hostilities in powers such as Germany and important countries such as Italy, which declared their intention to try to get rid of Russian gas, and Chancellor Olaf Schultz reportedly discussed with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett the issue of replacing Russian gas with blue and white gas.
And in Israel?
Here, Minister Elharar, in the name of a vague pursuit of renewable energies, decided to press the brakes when it comes to gas exploration, a more puzzling decision even without the need to fight in Ukraine.
By the way, the minister herself made a similar statement, against stopping the gas exploration, just before she pressed the brake pedal: only last October, Elharar appeared with the director general of her office in the Knesset to explain her policy and the importance of natural gas to the State of Israel. Temporary to ensure the energy security of the State of Israel, "the minister clarified and even recommended" not to bury your head in the sand "when it comes to replacing gas with other renewable energies. The gas prevents a return to the use of polluting coal, how the gas helps maintain low electricity prices, and also provided an overview regarding its contribution to our relations with Egypt and Jordan and our status as a regional power.
And that's not all.
Elharar herself advised MKs to look at the acute energy crisis in Europe, where governments are forced to subsidize electricity for their citizens and following promiscuous and irresponsible policies of switching to imaginary energies, have reached a point where winter heating is a luxury for many.
And yet, despite all this, the minister decided weeks after her statements, without a voice from the prime minister or senior ministers, that Israel would voluntarily give up, at least for a year, the chance to expand its gas reserves.
The decision, as stated, will harm an important component of our national security and endanger the Israeli energetic future.
It is doubtful whether one can think of a clearer and more serious mistake than this.
The only question, to which no one has so far provided an answer, is - why?
Were we wrong?
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