Upfront Payment is not important. The real problem is Israeli and Egyptian gas is not competitive versus Russian, Azerbaijani, Iranian, Turkmen, Kazakh, Algerian or Libyan gas. The moment that pipeline is built Russians will lower the gas prices a bit and Israel will be forced to sell at a loss. Another reason is the US is selling a huge amount of shale gas to the EU.
Electric grid connection is also is not viable. You can't transmit that much electrical power through cables losses are too great. Besides natural gas is also used as a raw material for the industry and heating the buildings. Using electricity for home heating is not efficient. I'm not saying there wont ever be an electrical grid connection but that connection will only carry a really low amount of energy compared to a potential gas pipe. A gas pipe carries billions of cubic meters of gas. Equivalent electrical energy is too much to transport. Too much energy will be lost to cable and transformation/conversion losses at such long distances.
Electric grid connection is also is not viable. You can't transmit that much electrical power through cables losses are too great. Besides natural gas is also used as a raw material for the industry and heating the buildings. Using electricity for home heating is not efficient. I'm not saying there wont ever be an electrical grid connection but that connection will only carry a really low amount of energy compared to a potential gas pipe. A gas pipe carries billions of cubic meters of gas. Equivalent electrical energy is too much to transport. Too much energy will be lost to cable and transformation/conversion losses at such long distances.