Even for a nation quite used to dramatic news, what happened within the span of four days – from Shabbat morning to Tuesday evening – came as a shock to Israelis.
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.
Is Mahmoud Abbas about to step down, perhaps even undo the entire Oslo process, and hand over the Palestinian Authority's functions – the proverbial "car keys" - back to Israel?