A great article in a newspaper in the United Arab Emirates highlighted the Middle East's lack of water (12 of the 17 most water-stressed countries in the world are there) and its role in igniting civil wars in Syria and Yemen as well as refugee crises - and soon to be economic crises - in the area. Unfortunately it stopped short of giving solutions - and the easiest solution of all, which post-Abraham Accords is staring everyone in the Middle East right in the face - making peace with Israel.
Israel is the world leaders in water technology. Despite not having a Tigris or a Euphrates or a Nile - if you've seen our Jordan River you know that it really only took 12 stones for the Tribes of Israel to cross it - and being 60% desert, Israel somehow has managed to greatly increase its water sources. All this while upping the population (both Jewish and Arab) between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea in the last 140 years from 500,000 to some 12.5-13 million (despite what you may have heard, the Arab population has actually skyrocketed here over the last 70 years).
Whether it be inventing drip irrigation and desalination, or being the world's leader - by far - in recycling water (Israel recycles about 80% of its water whereas the second place country recycles about 30%), Israel is far and away the world's leader in handling its water resources. This is why Israeli experts are all over California these days, but with a peace agreement, they easily could be closer to home, helping out our beleaguered neighbors.
Was this the secret key in the UAE and Bahrain making peace with Israel? Perhaps. At the least it was a long-term benefit. All I know is that as a tour guide of Israel, I have taken my clients up along the border with Lebanon, which shares the exact same climate and soil as Israel's northern region of Galilee (in fact, the physical border of the Galilee is the Litani River in South Lebanon). There we saw the Israelis growing vineyards and fig trees [yes, Hamilton took that line from the Hebrew Bible] while using drip irrigation. On the other side of the fence, we could see older Lebanese women carrying heavy jugs to water their plants one by one [they were growing opium - while the UN vehicle looked on doing nothing, but that's another story].
As oil reserves are depleted and water sources grow scarce, at some point even the most virulent anti-Israel regimes are going to have to realize that being in conflict with us is just not worth the price they are paying. Not only are they missing the boat... they are missing the water to float the boat.
If you'd like to learn more about some of the Israel's incredible technology - and water tech in particular - talk to me about doing an Israel tech tour with me. On my hi-tech tour of Israel we have visited desalination plants as well as a number of startups like WaterGen which creates water out of thin air. For more on those click here: https://www.tourguideofisrael.com/hi-tech-tours
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