Water In the Middle East: Prospects for Conflict and Cooperation Essay

Reasons and origins of the conflict for water are dating back in the late 40s and the Arab-Israeli conflict. More precisely, the countries involved that represent potential conflict are Israel and Syria, as well as Israel and Palestine. For example, what can be mentioned here are Israeli aspirations to keep tight control over the economically important areas. This is directly linked to the water issues and diverting the water from one to another region. Other Arab countries are strongly opposing such shift as this will increase Israel’s industrial and agricultural capacities and, consequently, will encourage further Jewish immigration to the country. There have been plans to prevent such discourse, but Israeli`s military strikes have prevented these intentions back in 1965−1966 (Kershner, 2013). Even despite the fact that Israel and Jordan have settled their water disputes in the 1994 peace agreement (ibid), the water remains an important source of tension between Israel and Syria and, by default, between Israel and Lebanon. Water disputes are contributing towards failure of the peace talks between Israel and Syria in the 1990s, as well as those between Tel Aviv and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) (ibid). Many of the water resources in the peninsula have been under Israeli control and some of the construction works of the other countries have been the first significant attempts to challenge the above mentioned status quo. On the other hand, apart for the prospects for conflict, the role of the international community has been from great importance, as it is trying hard to impose a middle ground between the conflicting countries. It is clear that no final agreement is possible until there are agreed-upon borders betw... ...er. The University of Michigan, 1997. 11. Jordan Times, 1 June 1994. 12. Juusola, H. Water Conflicts in the Middle East. December, 2012. 13. Kershner, E. (2013). A Rare Middle East Agreement, on Water. New York Times, Middle East. 14. Middle East International, â„â€" 458, 10 September 1993. 15. Monday Morning. No. 448, September 2002. 16. Muhammad al-Baba Shaaban, Abdallah Khoury et al al-Dzhugrafiya. 1988, Beirut, page 55; US Army Corps of Engineers, Water in the sand: A survey of Middle East water issues. 17. Palace, Z. (2013) â€Å"Business and Water: New Channels for Breaking the Impasse in the Middle East?†. Business and water, panel summaries and transcripts. Forum 2000 18. PBS Online edition: â€Å"A Struggle for Water Resources in Middle East Conflict†. October, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/newshour/extra/video/blog/2010/10/a_struggle_for_water_resources.html