At this week's Cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announce a new NIS 2 Billion initiative to develop alternative fuels, calling it a "national goal of the highest importance." Here are Prime Minister Netanyahu's full remarks:

"In the coming decade, the state of Israel will invest almost NIS 2 billion in developing alternative fuels for transportation. I spoke about this at the beginning of my tenure as Prime Minister and I asked National Economic Council Chairman Prof. Eugene Kandel and the relevant ministers to coordinate and look for a framework in which we might be able to meet the need for alternatives to petroleum - alternative fuels for motor vehicles.

Motor vehicle fuel constitutes a major part of the world's petroleum consumption. Due to the oil markets' changing nature, i.e. the fluctuating price of a barrel of petroleum, until today, no concentrated effort has been made to find alternatives for petroleum. If we start to find and develop such alternatives when the price of petroleum is very high, as soon as prices start to drop, such efforts are halted; therefore, it is difficult to rely on private companies and the usual research bodies to move things forward and fund such research. Thus, there is a need for the governments. But not every government is committed, to the same degree, to finding such a solution.

We are a small country that suffers from the global dependence on petroleum more than any other country. While we may be a small country in certain ways, we are a giant in science, research and brainpower. Therefore, the intention is to concentrate here a focus of work and research, a significant financial focus and harness to it strong forces, in research, science and technology, and link them with other similar bodies from around the world, with Israel being the leading factor.

The catalyst for this research activity, which could, in my opinion, produce results within a decade, is the possibility that this effort will lead to results that are so significant for us, and, in my opinion, for humanity as a whole.

I view this as a national goal of the highest importance because the addiction to oil has led to the Western world being dependent on the oil-producing countries and harms the standing and security of the State of Israel. Of course, it significantly harms the environment as well. 40% of emitted greenhouse gases originate in the use of oil; therefore, there are many aspects and advantages here in finding good alternatives for transportation fuel. Today, we are, in effect, launching the first discussion so that we will be able to make practical decisions to advance this important research.

I would like to thank the National Economic Council, its Chairman, Prof. Eugene Kandel, the inter-ministerial team, and the various ministers and their aides. We will need to work together in order to resolve several items. There are still various opinions on how to organize this activity and I intend to solve these problems and advance this project, which is so important for the security and the economy of the State of Israel."