The biggest problems, though, revolve around the issue of sovereignty. Israel’s decision in 1981 to annex the Golan (unlike the West Bank, which remains formally under military occupation) caused a diplomatic crisis with America. The heights are still regarded internationally as illegally-occupied Syrian territory. Israel’s leaders in the past have offered to pull back from the Golan, which it captured in 1967, in return for a comprehensive peace treaty with the Syrian government. But any such deal has been firmly out of the question since Syria began disintegrating in 2011.
An influential group is now lobbying Israel’s government to take advantage of the chaos in Syria and demand international recognition of its control of 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) on the Golan. The group includes Zvi Hauser, a former cabinet secretary to the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, who has urged that Israel should demand this as a compensation for having to tolerate the nuclear agreement with Iran.
It is not clear whether Genie shares this objective, but if it chose to, it would be no surprise. Genie’s founder and CEO is Howard Jonas, an influential American-Jewish businessman. The president of Genie’s Israeli subsidiary is Effie Eitam, a Golan settler and a former general who is close to the prime minister. And in America Genie has increased its clout. In September it added some influential new members to an advisory board that already included a former vice-president, Dick Cheney, and a media tycoon, Rupert Murdoch. One was Larry Summers, who was treasury secretary in the Clinton administration and director of the National Economic Council under Barack Obama. Also added were two other Clinton-era appointees: Bill Richardson, an ex-ambassador to the United Nations and energy secretary, and James Woolsey, a former CIA director.
For most of its existence, Israel has relied on unstable or distant sources for its energy. Recent large finds of offshore gas have opened new opportunities, but have also caused fights over pricing, export quotas and private ownership. This week Israel’s economics minister, Aryeh Deri, resigned in a row over these issues. So the prospect of energy independence for his country—as well as the idea of establishing recognition of its control of land captured 48 years ago—is certainly alluring.