The Red Sea - Dead Sea canal

The agreement for the two seas Canal connecting the Red and Dead Sea was summed up best by Israeli water minister Silvan Shalam who jubilantly described it following the December 9 signing ceremony at the World Bank headquarters as "a historic agreement that realises ... the dream of (founder of modern Zionism Theodore) Herzl."

The canal was another strategic triumph for Israel's conniving diplomacy even after the project was reduced to about one-tenth of its original size due to serious economic and environmental concerns raised by the World Bank.

The Zionist-envisioned project was repackaged and sponsored by Jordan as a must to save the Dead Sea, and building a large desalination plant providing each Israel and Jordan with eight billion to 13 billion gallons of fresh water annually.

According to Israeli and international environmentalists, Israeli government's policies of over pumping from the Sea of Galilee and Jordan River - serving Jewish only colonies - was the main cause for the loss of nearly 30 per cents of the Dead Sea's mass in the last 50 years.

Herzl's repackaged vision includes articles tacitly granting Israel exclusive water rights in the supposedly shared Sea of Galilee and Jordan River's water. For the tri-party agreement empowers Israel to transfer close to 13 billion gallons of fresh water from those bodies to Jordan and to sell the state of Palestine 8bn gallons of drinking water at preferential prices.

Even more cynical is for the state of Palestine to purchase water from Israel -mind you at a special discount - while Israel continues to expropriate West Bank's water aquifers for the benefit of illegal Jewish-only colonies for free.

In addition to political concerns, environmentalists have warned that introducing new water composition from the Red sea brings a host of new invasive photosynthetic organisms which could lead to drastic negative consequences affecting the unique natural system of the Dead Sea.

Unlikely to solve the Dead Sea environmental degradation, international and Israeli environmentalists have alternatively suggested that "the reestablishment of the Jordan River to its natural state was a better solution to the decline of the Dead Sea than the proposed canal."

While it would receive roughly half of the desalinated water from the project, the 100 miles brine pipeline will run exclusively through Jordanian territories to circumvent objections by Israeli environmental groups.

Lacking proper environmental oversight, a credible rupture in the high saline pipeline - running along known active earthquake fault - would cause irreparable damage for a main source of Jordan's fresh groundwater in Wadi Araba.

Being the only party with positive return and no potential risks, the agreement provides Israel a free safety net to escape responsibility for the Dead Sea's environmental calamity while realising an old Zionist strategic military vision adding a natural water course on Israel's eastern borders. Economically, this project places Israeli water companies in a unique position to gain the most in building the waterway, associated desalination and power generation plants.

Jordan, on the other hand, is taking the biggest long term risk since a probable structural failure in the Canal system would lead to an incurable disaster for both the agriculture and ecosystem in the Jordanian valley.

In purchasing Israeli water, Palestine is sanctioning Israel's theft of its water aquifers from occupied West Bank, while allowing Israel to continue syphoning the only lifeline for the Dead Sea. More

 

Jordanian monarch tells UN that transgressions against Al-Aqsa are unacceptable

King Abdullah II: 'Any attempt to erase the Arab, Muslim or Christian identity of Jerusalem, will not be tolerated.'

In his speech to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, King Abdullah II of Jordan warned Israel about its "religious transgressions" against Al-Aqsa Mosque. He stressed that attempts to erase the Arab, Muslim or Christian identity of Jerusalem "will not be tolerated".

The King reminded the General Assembly that Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Noble sanctuary - Al-Haram Al-Sharif - in East Jerusalem is under his kingdom's custodianship and is protected by international law as occupied territory. Al-Aqsa is Islam's third holiest site and it is important to 1.7 billion Muslims, one quarter of the world's population. It is similar in importance to the Ka'aba in Makkah and the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah.

"Let me be absolutely clear, any invasion or division of the site of Al-Aqsa Mosque would be viewed not only as a breach of Israel's obligations [as the occupying power], but also as profound religious transgression," said King Abdullah. "The international community must send a clear message that such transgressions, or any attempt to erase the Arab, Muslim or Christian identity of Jerusalem, will not be tolerated."

Referring to the ongoing changes in the Arab world, the King pointed out that while we deal with these challenges, we must never lose focus on the crisis at the heart of the region. "For almost sixty-five years, the Palestinian people have been the exception to the UN promise of shelter under international law and human rights - not yet; all nations had the dignity of living in freedom and security except the Palestinians not yet; all nations had the right to self-determination except the Palestinians not yet; now is the time to say, 'Enough!'"

The King was emboldened when he connected the Arab Spring to the Palestine-Israel issue. "As the Arab Spring demanded dignity for all, so it demanded the end of exceptionalism," he told the General Assembly. "No single issue causes greater anger than to tell an entire people that when it comes to global justice, they don't count."

There must be a just peace, he continued, before the "Arab Summer" can bear its full fruit: "A just peace with a Palestinian state living side by side with a secure Israel at peace with the entire region."

King Abdullah clearly blamed the Israelis for spoiling the chance of a resumption of negotiations. "Earlier this year, in Amman, we succeeded in getting both sides back to the table for exploratory talks," he explained. "Then positive traction stopped again. Illegal settlement-building and unilateral actions continue, constituting direct threats to a negotiated peace."

A rare opportunity for resolving the conflict, the King believes, will present itself after the US presidential election. "There may be a rare window of opportunity, later this year, to achieve what both sides so urgently need: two states, at peace, Palestine and Israel - both secure, both free to look forward - on the basis of a just, comprehensive, and final settlement. This has always been and will remain a foremost priority for Jordan." More