In a rare alignment, Israel’s Independence Day converges this year with International Earth Day. The timing is perfect. While wars, grief, and a profound uncertainty about the future have dominated our thoughts for over two and a half years, this date serves as a stark reminder that national independence is not just about borders. Independence is fundamentally tied to the soil beneath our feet and the air we breathe. While we fight for better lives in the present, we are quietly losing the battle for our habitat in the future.

Thirty months of war with Iran and its proxies have underlined Israel’s fragility. We often speak of energy independence, yet we are currently shooting ourselves in the foot by clinging to a vulnerable, centralized system. Yes, our domestic natural gas reserves have cushioned us from the global electricity price spikes that have crippled Europe. We haven’t had to scramble for expensive Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) on the global market.

But this ‘cushion’ is made of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, and our ability to turn it into power relies on just three processing sites in the Mediterranean. Since the start of the war in 2023, all three have been shut down at various intervals for fear of targeted attacks. Each time the gas stops flowing, we fall back on coal, the dirtiest of fuels, poisoning our air to keep the lights on. It is a strategic absurdity.

The Finance Ministry continues to subsidize natural gas even though solar energy is now cheaper and, more importantly, decentralized. Every rooftop, farming shed, and reservoir covered in solar panels and battery storage becomes an independent power plant. An enemy can strike a gas platform; they cannot strike two million rooftops simultaneously. True independence in 2026 is a distributed power system.

Yet, rather than leaning into this resilience, our leaders are looking away. Take the transport sector: we remain tethered to the volatility of the Strait of Hormuz. When oil spiked to over $100 a barrel last month, every Israeli felt it at the pump. Instead of incentivizing the shift to electric vehicles (EVs), the government has systematically dismantled the transition. This year, purchase tax on EVs jumped to 48%, up from 45% last year and a mere 10% just a few years ago. By slashing the tax-exempt amount to a paltry NIS 22,000 ($7,330) even as electric vehicles are already more expensive than combustion-engine vehicles, the state is essentially taxing Israelis for trying to decouple themselves from foreign oil.

The irony is that while we are distracted by the immediate threats of war, the climate – a “threat multiplier” – is already breaching our defenses. Israel is a climate hotspot, warming at twice the global average. We are on a collision course with a hotter, drier future characterized by violent flash floods and the arrival of more tropical, disease-carrying pests. And yet, our infrastructure is not ready, and our government is silent – the current one in particular.

Our vulnerability extends to the very food on our plates. Israel is too small for total agricultural independence, but we are currently failing at the security we can control. The Agriculture Ministry has a detailed plan for food security through expanded local cultivation, yet the Finance Ministry is obsessed with the (mistaken) notion that imports will encourage competition and bring our horrendously high prices down. They have not.

We continue to poison our soil by allowing the use of pesticides banned elsewhere. Perhaps most galling is our waste: we throw away roughly 40% of our homegrown fruit and vegetables before they ever reach a table. In a state under siege, wasting nearly a third of our food supply isn’t just an environmental lapse; it’s a national security failure.

Despite this, we find ourselves with a historically weak Environmental Protection Ministry and a government that won’t pass a climate act because it fears having to spend on something it doesn’t prioritize and doesn’t want its hands tied. Public awareness remains pitifully low because the state has failed to educate its citizens on the looming consequences of a 2-degree Celsius rise in local temperatures by century’s end. We are being led by people who believe we can afford to deal with the planet “after the war.” But climate change does not pause for ceasefires.

If we want to celebrate Israel’s independence for another 78 years, we must redefine what “security” means. It means a “Blue and White” that is also deeply green. It means carbon taxes on fossil fuels that aren’t just passed onto the consumer, but are reinvested in a massive, nationwide solar rollout. It means a public transportation system that actually works, reducing the soul-crushing traffic jams that bleed our productivity and our lungs.

On this Independence Day, as we look at the flags fluttering in the wind, we must ask ourselves: what kind of land are we securing? A scorched, overheated strip of Mediterranean coast dependent on a few vulnerable gas platforms, or a resilient, solar-powered, water-secure nation that leads the world in climate innovation?

The battle for the planet hasn’t disappeared behind the smoke of war. It has only become more urgent. We cannot afford the luxury of looking away.

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)