The electric company thing may be even more criminal than you think. One theory making the rounds -- which has real merit IMHO -- is that the electricity "crisis" was actually cooked up by the Electric Company itself. The IEC and its workers' council have been bitterly fighting government plans to try and privatize it. A few months ago, the Minister for the Environment shut down the Reading power plant in Tel Aviv. The government had ordered the IEC to convert Reading into a natural gas-powered plant and the IEC was dragging its feet over the issue. Now, because of the "crisis", the IEC turned around and demanded that the government re-open Reading. The government caved in. This whole thing feels like a big, noxious, illegal exercise in muscle-flexing on the part of Israel's worst and most hated public monoply.