For years, I have been writing a series of blogs titled “What We Lose If We Lose Israel”. The most recent of them, written just yesterday, talked about the success Israel has had with desalinizing water, and what a benefit it would be to any territory or country which might utilize it.
And now, today, I see this – excerpted from an article in the International Business Times:
Jordan and Israel signed an agreement on 26 February to go ahead with a World Bank-sponsored project to build a desalination plant in the Gulf of Aqaba and a pipeline linking the Red Sea with the Dead Sea.
The plant will be built in the southern Jordanian port of Aqaba on the Red Sea and will desalinate water to be shared by Israelis and Palestinians.
Jordanian officials said the two projects were crucial to providing a source of fresh water to the kingdom, which faces a severe water deficit, and to reviving the shrinking Dead Sea.
The desalination plant will produce at least 80 million m³ annually. Israel will buy at cost up to 40 million m³, the rest will go to Aqaba.
How is it Jordan has no problem partnering with Israel? Because Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty in 1994 – 21 years ago. And, since that time, not one military action has taken place between the two countries. Instead, we have mutually cooperative partnerships like this one…
…proving, again, that Israel is perfectly capable of making peace with Arab neighbors and Arabs are perfectly capable of making peace with Israel. And Jordan isn\’t even the longest-term example of it: Israel has been at peace with Egypt since 1979, 36 years ago.
If Palestinian Arabs had any serious interest in peace with Israel, this kind of mutual cooperation – to their enormous benefit – would be fully available.
Unfortunately, however, their interest remains obliterating Israel and killing all its Jews. Which has gotten them what?
You cannot protect people from themselves. And, sadly, Palestinian Arab leadership proves this every day.
