Slideshow: Israel’s Oil Dreams Kick Off Environmental Battle

When you think of petroleum in the Middle East, Israel is hardly the place that comes to mind.

Well, Israel recently announced controversial plans to drill for natural gas in a contested region of the Mediterranean Sea.

And now an Israeli firm contends that the country is sitting on an oil bonanza, in the form of a vast deposit of energy-rich rock known as oil shale.

The company says the resource could transform Israel’s energy economy, but its plans have set off an environmental battle replete with biblical imagery.