Middle Eastern countries are sitting on an ocean of natural gas

for the Israeli government to agree with Hizbullah, the Lebanese Shia militia and political party. But in effect it did on October 11th, after months of American-led talks. As was published, a deal with Lebanon was awaiting review in Israel’s parliament.This is not peace in our time: although the deal demarcates Israel’s maritime border with Lebanon it will not end the long state of war between them. But it is striking, and timely for the West, because it may unlock new gas resources that Europe desperately needs to replace supplies from Russia that have been disrupted since its invasion of Ukraine.