Fortunately, Abram (or Abraham) and his sons Ishmael and Isaac did, at Beersheba. For an account of this, one can read Genesis 21:19-31 and 26:15-23 in the bible.

The Historic Dimension

But that’s only where the water story for this resource-poor area starts. Drought forced emigration to Egypt with its reliable Nile water, stockpiled grain and slavery.

After the Exodus and return to the Promised Land — and following the establishment of the united kingdom of Israel — the choice by King David (1004-965 B.C.) to name Jerusalem as capital was fortunate, because the city had good access to water in the nearby pulsating karstic spring of En-Gihon.

Rebuilding

Between 705 and 701 B.C. when Hezekiah — king of Judah — anticipated an Assyrian invasion, he had a remarkable underground tunnel dug through over 500 meters of solid rock. The purpose was to transport water from the Gihon spring (which he had hid by surrounding walls) to the Siloam Pool.

The 50 cents per cubic meter cost of desalinating Mediterranean water could easily be borne by the rich Israeli economy.

This was an essential factor in the city’s miraculous resistance to the siege by Sennacherib. It did not, however, prevent the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians in 586 B.C. — the year when the First Temple was destroyed.

Following the return of the Jews from Babylonian exile in 538 B.C. and the establishment of the Second Temple, Jerusalem’s water supply was at times placed under the responsibility of the High Priest.

Changing rulers

But by the time of Jesus, it had been forgotten that the waters in the Siloam Pool actually came from Gihon spring.

Israel has been accused of “stealing” rain that would normally fall on Palestinian lands — by cloud-seeding operations in northern Israel.

Jerusalem, stronghold of the Great Revolt against the Roman Empire, was destroyed in 70 A.D. by Titus’s legions, who had starved out the resistance by surrounding the city with walls.

There were several centuries of Roman — and later Byzantine (Christian) — rule. Then, following the Muslim conquest in 638 A.D., Arab rule was only briefly interrupted by the Crusader incursion from 1009 to 1187 A.D. — until the Ottoman Empire swept through the region. The Empire ruled Palestine as a minor province, by way of governors in Damascus, from 1516 up to World War I.

Goats to blame for climate change?

Modern Zionism appeared only in the 19th century — as a reaction against European anti-Semitism as much as a semi-religious movement — with an ideology of return to the land. And that meant land presumably with water.

When the British mandate was established in 1919, conditions in Palestine — and indeed over much of North Africa and the Near East — had become very different from Roman times. Back then, these areas had produced large amounts of grain.

Some tended to put the blame on the grazing by goats belonging to Bedouins. Others blamed Arabs in general — or Ottoman neglect. And yet, the desertification of many of these regions may also have been related to climate change.

Blooming desert

At any rate, the Zionist ambition was to “make the desert bloom.”

Recharge of the Israeli Foothills aquifer depends in part on flow from the fairly well-watered mountain aquifer — located over essentially Palestinian territory.

The ideology included many elements in common both with American “can-do” philosophy and with technological optimism of the socialist movement.

Today’s Israeli-Arab conflict — essentially a competition for land — necessarily also has a water dimension. This is because application of modern agricultural methods cannot do away with the need for water, even if in principle it can render water use more efficient.

Population growth

With the development of the largely modern and rich Israeli society, water withdrawals have grown more rapidly than the population. Israel now uses at least 100% of its renewable freshwater resources.

Growth of the Palestinian Arab population — and significant, although still limited economic development — also has increased water demand.

Modern Times

Today, in addition to the Israeli-Arab conflict over land, there is competition and potential conflict over water.

Water on and in the ground inevitably links the destinies of all those who inhabit a region.

Israel’s National Water Carrier, completed in 1964 (three years before the Six-Day War), pumps more than 400 million cubic meters of water per year from the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret). It supplies farms as far as 250 km (150 miles) to the south.

Serious conflict also exists over groundwater, which is both directly and indirectly related to the conflict over land. The coastal plain aquifer extends from Carmel (near Haifa) in the north to the Palestinian Gaza Strip in the south.

Salty water problem

Although enough rain falls in the winter to support some farming, intensive modern Israeli agriculture requires pumping of ground water.

In addition, because of extremely high population density in the Gaza Strip — as well as very high water usage by Jewish settler farms — the aquifer there is being pumped at about 120 million cubic meters per year. That rate is nearly twice the sustainable rate, and salt content has reached excessively high levels.

Mountains vs. seashore

Over the Israeli portion of the coastal plain, despite the development and application of extremely efficient drip irrigation techniques, pumping of groundwater exceeds recharge of the aquifer — infiltration of rainfall together with recharge from irrigated lands and wastewater recycling — by some 200 million cubic meters per year. There, too, the risk of salinization by seawater intrusion is compounded.

Israel now uses at least 100% of its renewable freshwater resources.

Further complicating this issue, recharge of the mostly Israeli Foothills aquifer depends in part on the flow from the fairly well-watered mountain aquifer — located over essentially Palestinian territory.

Historically, this land corresponds to the post-Solomon, pre-Roman Jewish kingdoms of Judah and Israel — areas called Judea and Samaria by Israelis.

Groundwater irrigation

Indeed, some charge that as much as a third of the water used in Israel comes from rain that falls over the western mountain aquifer — and flows westward toward the Foothills aquifer.

Until the Israeli occupation’s start in 1967, the inhabitants of this “West Bank” of Jordan practiced mostly rain-fed agriculture, with some groundwater withdrawal for urban water supply.

Agriculture and pollution connections

With population growth and introduction of more intensive agriculture, increased withdrawals from the western mountain aquifer reduce the water available in the foothills and the coastal plain below to the west — and may allow enhanced seawater intrusion into both of the coastal aquifers.

The Israeli-Arab conflict — a competition for land — necessarily also has a water dimension because the application of modern agricultural methods cannot do away with the need for water.

Israeli specialists also fear pollution flowing into the coastal aquifer if West Bank agriculture intensifies. Recognizing that some of the water pumped in the coastal plain comes from the mountain aquifer, they argue that prior use (prior to the Six-Day War) gives them a legal voice on what is done with and to the mountain water.

Indeed, as noted by Israeli hydrogeologist Arie Issar, efficient use by Palestinians of groundwater from the mountain aquifer fed by the rainfall over the Palestinian territories depends on the vast storage only available in the Israeli Foothills aquifer.

Palestinians and Israelis must work together to get full benefit of the water. Mr. Issar has also argued that the (now) $0.50 per cubic meter cost of desalinating Mediterranean water could easily be borne by the relatively rich Israeli economy.

Cooperation

Writing in an Israeli voice, he says, “we and the Palestinians have the obligation to draw up a cooperative regional plan for water resources utilization (as part of a regional plan with our other neighbors), that will permit development of our respective agricultural and urban sectors.

“In their well-being lies our own, while their economic deterioration, with its great attendant disappointment in the peace process, is a sure recipe for the ascendancy of religious fundamentalism and the continued reign of terror in the region.”

Stealing rain?

Palestinians and some Israelis accuse the Israeli occupation authorities of unfairly limiting access to water by Arab inhabitants of the West Bank.

What are the chances of cooperation, if each side is blind to the legitimacy of the other’s presence?

In some cases, they accuse authorities of including previously operating wells in forbidden security areas — while giving a much freer rein to new Jewish settlements with high water-consumption rates.

Israel has also been accused of “stealing” rain that would normally fall on Palestinian lands — by cloud-seeding operations in northern Israel. But even if this works at all — and most specialists doubt it — extra rain will fall as much on one side as on the other of the convoluted borders.

Peaceful progress

Despite all these conflicts, there was progress toward peace in the 1990s. The Israel-Jordan peace treaty of 1994 specifically includes water-sharing issues. So does the 1993 Israeli-Palestinian “Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-government Arrangements,” with its call for creation of a Palestinian Water Authority.

Israeli and Arab specialists have met many times and worked together on issues of water management and the reduction of water pollution, their cooperation regards both groundwater and runoff in the Near East — as well as discharges into the Mediterranean.

Fanaticism, fear, violence

However, all of this cooperation appears severely compromised, as religious and nationalist fanaticism, fear and violence have gained the upper hand in an ever-worsening situation.

Modern Zionism appeared only in the 19th century with an ideology of return to the land — presumably with water.

In my view it is high time to look at the broader picture. The atmosphere takes and brings water over borders across the entire world.

Water on and in the ground inevitably links the destinies of all those who inhabit a river basin or even larger region.

What are the chances?

Because of these facts, it appears difficult to solve the increasingly serious water crisis facing both the rich and scientifically advanced Israelis and the impoverished Palestinians without cooperation.

But what are the chances of cooperation, if each side is blind to the legitimacy of the other’s presence?