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Source: http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4088797
Moses's Oily Blessing
(Economist-UK) "Moses dragged us for 40 years through the desert to bring us to the one place in the Middle East where there was no oil," quipped Israeli prime minister Golda Meir. Now John Brown, a Catholic Texan cutting-tools executive, and Tovia Luskin, a Russian Jewish geophysicist and career oilman, hope to prove that not only is there oil, but that Moses pointed to it. In chapter 33 of the book of Deuteronomy, Moses says the land of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh will yield the "precious fruits" of "the deep lying beneath," of the "ancient mountains" and of the "everlasting hills." In this text Luskin saw, says his company's lawyer, "a classic description of an oil trap." The company, Givot Olam (Everlasting Hills), has drilled three wells since 1994 and found oil, but not enough to be worthwhile.