President Macron's words demonstrate a growing awareness of this scourge at the highest levels of government and a determination to take a stand. So why is it that despite such admirable statements I feel a disheartening and wearying déjà vu?
The consortia owning Israel's two productive gas fields in the Eastern Mediterranean—Tamar and Leviathan (with a U.S. company, Noble Energy, an important but not a majority partner in both)—have signed a huge gas deal with an Egyptian company, estimated at 15 billion dollars over 10 years.
Amid the tumultuous and jarring political developments in transatlantic and European affairs over the past decade, Germany has been a bedrock of stability, with Chancellor Angela Merkel a key global leader.