Israel will pay at least one billion dollars for the Dead Sea-Red Sea canal project, although it isn’t vital for Israel’s water economy and will incur unnecessary economic costs.
Israel’s desire to ensure a strategic interest of maintaining a stable regime in Jordan which has been adhering to a 1994 peace treaty is largely seen as the driving factor for the move.
The price of geopolitical instability is usually expressed in terms of a huge defense budget at the expense of welfare and development, a high risk investment portfolio and a high cost of living because Israel is an isolated enclave lacking any trade along its borders. To this price we can now add the price the country has chosen intentionally to pay for political-strategic reasons.
The justification for paying a strategic price is measured by military intelligence analysts, Mossad and the Shin Bet and not necessarily by the Finance Ministry. Therefore it may be especially flexible with regard to the problematic budgetary standpoint.
About a month ago Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided that Israel would fulfill its commitment to advance the controversial project. Under the agreements with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority, Israel is obligated to finance its part of the project and purchase water from a desalination plant being established as part of the deal. The cost of this water will be particularly high considering that Israel can desalinate at half the prospective cost.
What has apparently tipped the scales in favor of the project is a need to keep the stability of Jordanian King Abdullah’s regime and prevent ISIS or Iran from establishing control along what is Israel’s longest border. In addition to supporting the canal project Israel has also decided to give Jordan a two year window to cancel the project in exchange for doubling its use of water from the Sea of Galilee. Jordan rejected the Galilee option half a year ago but agreed to the “window” option.
Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority signed the canal deal in 2013, intended to increase the flow of water to Jordan and slow the evaporation of the Dead Sea. The project calls for building a desalination plant in Aqaba that would process 80 million cubic meters for Israel and Jordan, with remaining salty water being channeled to the Dead Sea and producing 32 megawatts of power. In exchange for the water Israel would receive, it would sell Jordan 50 million cubic meters part of a swap in the north and 20 to 30 million cubic meters of water under yet-to-be-determined terms.
Israel has tried to evade making the commitment in recent years after the heavy economic price of the project, more than one bilion donnars over 25 years, became clear. Jordan has insisted on implementing the project because it sees it as a way of achieving a relatively independent water supply.
The delay in implementing the project was due to political and not only economic reasons. In July 2017 a young Palestinian stabbed a security guard at the Israeli embassy in Jordan and the guard shot him and the landlord of the rented flat dead. The incident caused a diplomatic crisis during which embassy workers spent some time beseiged in the embassy before they were permitted to return to Israel. Israel apologized for the incident last January and the embassy reopened with Israel agreeing to Jordan’s request to name a new ambassador to replace Einat Shlain. Amir Weisbrod took the job in September and relations resumed to normal, also putting the canal project back on the agenda after it had been frozen.
Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi believes the high cost of the project isn’t unnecessary. Hanegbi says that without the project Israel would have to spend a similar sum to renovate infrastructure in the Dead Sea region to repair the sinkholes and improve the tourist attraction.
The only factor seen as possibly threatening the project at this point is the issue of finding guarantors. Sources close to the project said Israel has to supply guarantees or compensation to the contractor in the event of a terror attack or major archaeological discovery while the canal is being dug. Israel says the state cannot protect sites beyond its borders and certainly not a more than 200-kilometer (124 miles) long pipeline.
When asked whether the project was still alive during an interview with TheMarker, Hanegbi said, “the deal has been launched but will be implemented slowly because it’s complicated and now the time has come to pubic a final tender for a contractor. Years ago 99 companies applied for the stage of presenting proposals, and five have been waiting for two years for an Israeli decision to publish the tender alongside the Jordanians.”
Hanegbi said Avi Simchon, chairman of the National Economic Council, had proposed an alternative plan to the Jordanians of selling them desalinated water instead of digging the canal. Jordan “was not very enthusiastic about the idea” and urged Israel to stick to its commitment, he said.
“The tender process will last about two years, during which time the Jordanians can decide whether they want to buy more water than the deal calls for….we can let them buy double the amount” contracted for, Hanegbi said.
@ yamit82:
The original concept was a canal cutting through the Negev from the Med to the Dead sea allowing for settlement. recreation and source of irrigation in the Negev agriculture… Hydroelectric power station etc. A win Win for Israel Red Sea project IMO the worst of the options. Pumping large amounts of water from the Red Sea could alter the properties of the sea water and alter if not destroy a wonder of the world the Coral reef and exotic fish in the Red Sea… All that for fucking Jordan? Somebody should kill this stupid plan fast and if it hurt the little king tough shit.
In the early ’90’s I was having a drink one eve, in the Hilton T/A and the people next to me were in a serious discussion on the “DEAD MED” PROJECT. Reps of billionaire Shoul Eisenberg was giving a presentation to potential investors for the project. At that time the Eisenberg Group wanted to bid on the project. So for an hour, I listened and learned a lot about the project and costs…flooding the Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea or the Med would destroy the Dead Sea ecology as we know it and making mining for Potash and other minerals more complicated and more expensive. It will destroy the tourism …the unique qualities of the Dead sea offer encouraging successful tourism. Hydroelectricity is less attractive since Israel has switched to natural gas for generator fuel. Israel is water selsufficient based on desalinization and as needs change due to modular design the plants can be extended to produce more water as needed with minimal additional costs. The Sea Of Galilee should be allowed to replenish its reserves and ensure fresh water and natural ecology of the Lake… Needed for fishing and tourist Industries.
Any help given to Jordan are Mafia type bribes and the Israeli consumer of water pays for that privilege in higher water costs. The problem here is nobody asked us if we agree and most Israelis are used to paying much higher prices for almost every service and product take it in stride.
Hugo Schmidt-Fischer Said:
BINGO !!! I agree 100%
This is completely wrong! Completely!
This is the politics of a person who dismisses totally the issue of leadership.
He ends up blaming the Jews.
I was not planning to write here again but I do not like to see the Jews being slandered which is EXACTLY what Adam Dalgliesh just did.
He totally blames the Jews which is rich coming from a professed religious Jew.
I ask him now what does he mean by this: “the collective self-interest of Jews”.
What is that? How is it expressed? Through leadership I presume.
So what is he doing talking about the past like this from where he lives in Colorado, or wherever, but that is by the by, very comfortable.
His theory as to why and how Jews walked into the Holocaust is rubbish. It is worse than that! That is not the right word to describe what Dalgliesh writes above.
He does not deal with the issue of leadership then, at all.
And obviously he has nothing WHATSOEVER to say about the issue of leadership today.
What are you doing about the issue of leadership today in a physical sense and I will answer…Nothing!
If Israel funds this project on its own, all the comments above about Jewish business acumen are on the mark. It is in Israel’s interest to refill the dead sea while harvesting hydro-electric power. Getting desalinated water is also very beneficial.
However, depending on Jordan or any other Arab state to keep the peace, eliminate terror activity and pay their fair share of the costs is in la-la-land. It won’t happen and we all know it.
I agree with the suggestion above to refill the dead sea from the Mediterranean as the only feasible option. Israel remains in control of the project and has itself to blame if costs expand beyond the plan. It will also bring work to Israeli poor.
There have been many articles over the last year or two about the hated King of Jordan being replaced in the foreseeable future. Taking the chance that the Iranians or their proxies take over by force, or that Israel has to step in to protect its longest border is a loser’s game.
As mentioned above, whatever kind of government comes after Abdullah, the chances are good that it will be worse than the current regime. If the “Palestinians” were to move there, they would enjoy all the benefits of unfettered terrorism without the Shin Bet or Mossad taking care of business daily.
In short, if this project is to move forward, it should remain an Israeli project 100%
@ adamdalgliesh:
I don’t believe that any “accommodation” with Abdullah, will, in the end, prove stable. He is a “dyed in the wool” Anti–Semite, who encourages all the open Jew-Hate -not that it really needs encouragement, but as a dictator, the Anti-Jew laws in Jordan are those of a savage, un-reconciled, deadly enemy. As for the project itself I can’t see why it should not be a straight transfer from the Med. which has a compatible saline component, the topographical challenges fewer, and with all ecological concerns taken into consideration, a far better, cheaper, , and more Israel centred solution.
In this vital water supply matter, Israel should be intent on bettering itself -not deadly enemies. Regardless of future (probably wrong) political forecasts….
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer: Except for maybe your last paragraph, I agree with everything you say.
The incredibly bad judgment that Jews display in matters affecting their collective (not just individual or personal) self-interest always amazes me. I have have all sorts of theories, but am still baffled.
One possibility is that the majority of Jews actually have below average IQs. According to this hypothesis,the success of Jews in business, the professions, the arts, and even politics when they are allowed to hold public office is the result of overcompensation, driven by ambition, hard work, parental pressure, the desire to emulate successful relatives, etc. However, these overcompensating motivations are not relevant to the collective self-interest of Jews, which requires “the vision thing”–in other words, raw intelligence, to understand. And so most Jews refused to believe it when told that the Germans were going to exterminate them, and willingly boarded the trains or walked to the killling fields when ordered to by the Nazis. Now , the Arabs can wrap Israel around their middle fingers.
@ Hugo Schmidt-Fischer:
Right on the mark. This decision taken a few years ago, did not see ahead to what Jordan would inevitably become, a failed state -held together by outside assistance.. If Israel puts it’s full efforts into encouraging change there from the top down…like the “Jordan Option-Jordan is Palestine” none of what Israel fears would happen, as the presence of Israel (and the US) as a sponsor would be enough to keep predators away.
If they persisted they could be taught a sharp aerial lesson…Especially as enemies intent on taking over, would be on the move and not able to withstand serious “seek and destroy” overhead attacks. Somewhat like the control Israel has over Iranian precision weapons being brought to Hezbollah etc. Only less risk of retaliation.
Israeli negotiators sometimes overreach, to their detriment -as in this instance.
This agreement with Jordan is insance. Israel is desperately short of water, especially Lake Kinneret (the Sea of Galilee) which has been below the minimum “red line” to make its water drinkable for years. It is disappearing, as is the Dead Sea and the Jordan River. How can Israel possibly give Jordan any more water when it can’t even afford to give them even the water it is giving them now. Draining the country of all usable fresh water sources and spending yet another billion dollars to prop up a not especially friendly government is crazy.
I am not especially an advocate of regime change in Jordan, because I think it is very possible that whomever or whatever replaces Abdullah might well be even worse for Israel. On the other hand, leaving Israel without water or even financial resources to prop up an unfriendly government is obviously crazy. At the very least, Israel could demand that Abdullah end his hotile behavior and resume cooperation with israel before giving him a drop of water or a cent. I think that if Israel had the couage to use this leverage, Abdullah, who is desperate to obtain water and money for his people to appease their anger at him, would fall into line very quickly. Israel would have its lease on the borderlands renewed, and the incitement on the temple mount by the jordanian appointed Wakf would end.
Israel will pay at least one billion dollars for the Dead Sea-Red Sea canal project, although it isn’t vital for Israel’s water economy and will incur unnecessary economic costs….Minister for Regional Cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi believes the high cost of the project isn’t unnecessary.
Has he gone out of his mind?
Over one fifth of Israelis subsist under the poverty line. It is double the OECD rate of 10%, and even worse than failed states as Mexico, Turkey, or Chile. For lack of beds, Israeli hospital patients are put up in corridors, where they are guaranteed to fall prey to infections.
Shelling out one billion dollars for a wasteful project in Jordan, is a bad case of Jizyah. If at all, canal should be built on Israeli territory, connecting to the Mediterranean.
Israel’s interest is not for Jordan to thrive. On the contrary, Jordan should fail and its residents should disperse throughout the Levant or relocate to Europe.