In Central Israel, not far from Jerusalem lies the Valley of
Elah, a fertile region of oak forests and checkerboard fields
bordered by limestone hills. In the Book of Samuel it is
described as the place where David slew Goliath, thereby
securing the future of the ancient Israelites. Seventy million
years ago, the Mediterranean Sea washed over this area. When the
water receded, it left behind sediment that eventually hardened
into a thick layer of shale laced with hydrocarbon-rich kerogen.
And that is why, if you ask the 41-year-old Israeli geologist
Yuval Bartov, the Valley of Elah is now the place that could
secure the future of the modern Israelites. On a recent June
afternoon, Bartov drives me to an overlook here, and points off
in the distance, beyond the field of red peppers, to a shed
half-concealed behind greenhouses. "That's where our pilot
project will take place," he tells me. Some time in the next few
months--barring bureaucratic delays or roadblocks thrown up by
Israel's feisty environmental movem