Why Did Israel’s Supreme Court Stop the Deal to Exploit the Country’s Off-Shore Gas Reserves?

Last month, Israel’s High Court of Justice struck down the deal Prime Minister Netanyahu concluded with two energy companies to begin drilling for and exporting natural gas located beneath the country’s coastal waters—a deal arrived at after more than six years of wrangling with both private corporations and the Knesset and capable of yielding considerable diplomatic and economic benefits. Akiva Bigman examines the court’s opinion, written by its vice president, Elyakim Rubinstein, and finds it irrational to the point of incoherence, arguing that it is a particularly egregious example of Israel’s imperious judiciary flexing its muscles: