The crisis in Ukraine illustrates how important the diversification of European gas sources has become and emphasizes the urgency to find alternatives to Russian gas, if only to reduce Moscow's ability to influence Europe and the NATO alliance. Managed to lead Europe to a united position as early as January, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, based on his view that "we must reduce our dependence on Russian energy."
By the end of 2021, about 40% of the EU's imported natural gas came from Russia.
The Russians worked systematically to create this situation, and even offered the previous chancellor, Gerhard Schroeder, a role in their energy company, Gazprom.
In early March, President Joe Biden announced a ban on Russian oil and gas imports to the U.S. The union announced, in response, that it would reduce Russian natural gas imports by two-thirds by the end of 2022.
While Washington was looking for alternative sources of energy products for Europe, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates refused to help at this point, in response to the Biden administration's policy in the war in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthis.
Currently, other pipeline suppliers to Europe include Norway (22%), Algeria (18%) and Azerbaijan (9%), but they can not provide a replacement for Russian gas.
There is also an Israeli angle.
Russia is ranked first in the world in the amount of natural gas, and has the capacity to produce 35 trillion cubic meters.
Immediately after it are Iran and Qatar.
In the eastern Mediterranean as a whole, including in Israel, there are huge gas reservoirs that are estimated to reach 10.8 trillion cubic meters of gas or about 5% of the world's gas reserves. This amount was estimated to be equivalent to approximately 76 years of gas consumption by the EU European.
Israel's share in the reservoirs of the eastern Mediterranean amounts to one thousand billion cubic meters, which could reach 3,000 billion cubic meters in the future, if Israel is educated to utilize all its economic water.
Unfortunately, the new government has changed Israeli energy policy;
The Minister of Energy, Karin Elharar, seems to be adopting the new approach - which takes hold overseas - of relying on renewable energy technologies, and has therefore suspended the granting of licenses for natural gas exploration for a year.
Despite the rejection of the completion of Israel's gas pipeline to Europe by the Biden administration, for reasons that are not entirely clear, Israeli gas is still used by its partners in the Middle East, especially Egypt and Jordan.
In the last decade, Iran has sought to export its gas to Iraq and even Jordan, thus expanding its influence east of Israel.
With the expected improvement of Israel-Turkey relations, Ankara may serve as the center of Israeli gas exports in the future.
Thus, after the war in Ukraine, there are multiple reasons why the works on the Eastern Mediterranean pipeline should be resumed in parallel with the continuation of gas exploration soon.
Moreover, increasing the gas supply to the West will also help lower its price, thereby undermining Russia's ability to finance its war machine in the future.
The Israeli economy is becoming an asset to European countries, which need energy supplies to stop their dependence on Russia.
It is important to maintain relations with Moscow, but there is an opportunity to diversify our international relations and prove our worth as diplomatic partners in a large number of arenas.
The war in Europe is expected to accelerate these changes and lead Israel to new allies.
There is already a new alliance of alliances with the participation of India, the United Arab Emirates and the United States, in cooperation with Israel in the Quad. The possibility cannot be ruled out that Turkey and a group of European countries will join this organization, The Israeli can be an important security factor, and should not be neglected or underestimated.
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