STUDY Claim What‘s Yours The Impact of Natural Gas Discoveries on Israeli Politics, ­Socioeconomic Discourse, and Regional Perception ELAI RETTIG December 2016 „ „ The discovery of two major offshore natural gas deposits in Israel‘s Exclusive Eco­nomic Zone – the Tamar and Leviathan fields – has important economic and geopo­litical benefits for the State of Israel and the East Mediterranean region as a whole. However, the discovery also managed to unearth and to amplify various social, politi­cal and economic grievances among large parts of the Israeli public. „ „ While the two gas fields hold the potential to substantially alter Israel‘s historic role in the region, the heated domestic struggle that they evoked went far deeper than regional politics, tapping into preexisting and deep-rooted social and economic di­vides within Israeli society. „ „ The high and at times unrealistic economic expectations that the gas finds created among parts of the Israeli public generated a socioeconomic discourse that grew emotional and uncompromising over time, making the goal of developing the gas fields and transforming the region an increasingly difficult one to reach. „ „ The gas discoveries thus created two parallel yet very different stories of Israel as a gas-rich nation, a domestic and a regional one, revealing the contrasting ways en­ergy resources can transform a country, its surroundings and its people.