Is there any Jewish Law-derived imperative for the private corporate owners of the recently discovered natural gas find offshore Israel to share their profits with the State to fund social programming? I know there is a controversy about this in Israel. Any solution in Jewish Law?

I am not familiar with the terms under which those whom you’re calling the “private corporate owners” of the recently discovered natural gas find acquired their rights to drill beneath the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Israel. Presumably, they leased or purchased these rights from the Israeli government through a contract. (I can’t imagine how else they could have acquired offshore drilling rights.) Most likely, in that contract the government reserved the right to tax profits or to impose other fees on the company. If that’s the case (which I think we have to assume it is – otherwise, the company would be able to sue the Israeli government for breach of contract), then Jewish law would insist that the private corporate owners live up to their obligations under the contract and pay whatever fees that the Israeli government, consistent with its contractual rights, has imposed or will impose. 

 

But your question raises a separate question: leaving aside the Israeli government’s legal right to collect taxes or fees from the private corporate owners, is there an imperative, a moral obligation, on the part of the corporate owners to share their profits with the state? My response is simple: How could there not be? Jewish law has long imposed a duty upon Jews to care for all others who live in our society. Throughout history, Jewish communities have imposed financial obligations on their members to support the community, and no one today would seriously question whether these are consistent with Jewish law.  There is always the question, of course, whether the actual fees imposed are “fair,” but that issue would appear to be settled by the finding (reported in today’s New York Times) that the rate of taxation that the Israeli government recently voted to impose on the corporate owners is “slightly below the average of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a group of more than 30 countries that Israel recently joined.”  

 

Without inquiring into the details of the legal agreement between the Israeli government and the corporate owners of the recently discovered natural gas find, it would appear that the recently reported imposition of taxes by the Israeli government is consistent with Jewish law. 

As a general rule, even though there are priorities in charity, i.e., which takes precedence; ultimately which charity a person decides on is an individual choice.

 

We cannot tell people what to do with their money. We can set parameters, but we cannot dictate.

 

Why should corporate owners of natural gas have greater obligations to the state than orange tree growers? And why must it be to social programming? Why not to hospitals?

 

The best solution is to hope the private corporate owners will have a sense of communal responsibility, and support Israel in a way that is meaningful and helpful.