awesome if this is true (oil)
The devil as always is in the details. (Ya gotta learn to follow the links in the very articles you post, Linda.) The existence of these deposits have been known for nearly a decade, but until recently have been considered to be economically/technologically infeasible.
One of the largest deposits – 250 billion barrels of oil in Israel’s Shfela basin, comparable to Saudi Arabia’s entire reserves of 260 billion barrels of oil – has until now been unexploited, partly because the technology required has been expensive, mostly because the multinational oil companies that have the technology fear offending Muslims. “None of the major oil companies are willing to do business in Israel because they don’t want to be cut off from the Mideast supply of oil,” explains Howard Jonas, CEO of IDT, the U.S. company that owns the Shfela concession through its subsidiary, Israel Energy Initiatives. Jonas, an ardent Zionist, considers the Shfela deposit merely a beginning: “We believe that under Israel is more oil than under Saudi Arabia. There may be as much as half a trillion barrels.”
http://www.jidaily.com/vc30H/e
Here are some of the details of the project that is ongoing for development of the Shfela oil shale deposits:
Israel is blessed with large amounts of oil shale that, if produced, can ensure Israel’s energy independence. IEI has comprehensive knowledge and practical experience in producing oil from oil shale using subsurface oil extraction (In Situ Conversion Process) technology.
http://probeinternational.org/library/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/c88e0767-9251-4fdf-8e49-966b0c958d451.pdf
It's a deeply technical article that trots will surely enjoy. ;-))

∆∆