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At the start of the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday, 27 Sivan 5775, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the press “Iran has announced that it will not allow surprise visits at its military installations on the nuclear issue. It has also backtracked from other issues that were seemingly agreed upon in the Lausanne agreement. To our regret, the reports arriving from the major powers attest to an acceleration of their concessions in the face of this Iranian obduracy. The agreement being formulated has looked bad from the outset. From day to day it seems to be getting worse. But it is not too late to take stock, reject this bad agreement and insist on a better agreement”.

The prime minister continued, addressing Israel’s new national gas plan. “This week the Cabinet will discuss our national gas plan. I am determined to bring the gas to the Israeli economy. This will lower the price of electricity. We will not fall into the trap into which many other countries fell when they argued endlessly over this issue while the gas remains underground. This will not happen here. We have delayed for years and it is possible to miss this train – this will not happen.

“We must make decisions even in the face of a populist onslaught – this does not faze me. I have led enough reforms in the Israeli economy that met with populist assaults but the value of which has now been proven as Israel overtakes many European countries in per capita income, standard of living and many other fields. Thus it will be with gas.

“Every delay in making a decision endangers our ability to benefit from this natural treasure and I am determined to advance a practical solution. The outline that we will submit assures a competitive price and prevents the possibility of price gouging. For their part, the private companies need to know that we will not compromise on the rights due to the state from its gas treasures. This is the right and necessary balance that we will advance as quickly as possible.”

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)