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Danielle (Dhani) Toney-Sullivan 5/12/14

CMS 336 A: US-Middle East RelationsProf. Dr. Masoud Kheirabadi

Peace in Hydro-Politics

There are many aspects of the United States/ Middle East quandary that I believed I was

well informed about. I have protested our wars and involvement in the Middle East, carrying

signs and attending rallies, shouting “NO BLOOD FOR OIL!”

I joined the Occupy movement and signed petitions to bring charges against George Bush

Sr., George Bush Jr., Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld for greed, criminal negligence and war

crimes against humanity.

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I believed my eyes had been open as an American against most of our foreign policies in

the Middle East and I have tried to remain current on world news, in moderation with all of my

other “life-ly” duties…but this class taught me that there is so much more that can be done to

influence the outcome of peace all over the world, especially concerning the Middle East

regions. I have had personal clashes with family who were in the United States military or

pro military over the truthful reasons we are at war. The truth as I see it from the viewpoint of a

citizen of the world is that we war primarily over natural planetary assets that belong to all

earthly dwellers, plants, animals and humans; resources that are running out and being privatized

by the richest people and corporations on the planet, for their own profit, at our expense. But the

problems we face are not only on the dirty hands of the crooked, greedy politicians, corrupt

corporations, the Illuminati and such; we each play a part in the injustice and have the duty to

engage responsible action in the peace making process.

Having been educated in this class and further in your Global Environmental Concerns

class and I have been overwhelmingly preoccupied with thoughts about the water scarcity on the

planet, and in particular, how it affects the peace process in the Middle East. Oil issues seem

trifle and secondary in comparison. According to the statistics regarding the scarce amounts of

fresh water and their rapid decline, the Earth’s water is not nearly as abundant as we have

thought. 97% salt water, 2% in melting ice caps and glaciers returning to the seas due to climate

change, and at least ½ of the remaining 1 % of fresh water being polluted and most of the rest

being used for agriculture…I am left very thirsty and longing on this hot spring day, for a cool

refreshing shower.

Our greatest resource of all, WATER, is nearly gone…and the masses in the United

States and many developed countries are clueless. What hit me the hardest of all these facts

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taught in this class, is the real danger we have of running out of water; water that we cannot

survive three days without. If we run out of oil, it will be inconvenient. Thankfully, we do have

other renewable resources to turn to. If we run out of fresh water, and we are likely to do so

sooner than most are aware of; we are doomed.

“The role of water in terms of psychology, symbols, economics and function are shared

across all cultures. Water has demonstrated its ability to build confidence and its utility as a

convener of parties even in situations where they otherwise are not talking.” (Priscoli, 1999)

Civilizations are built upon the water which they can resource. They also die when that

one particular resource runs out. It is pretty clear to me and should be to all humans that we are

in dire straits. These statistics offer a chilling truth.

One out of every eight people in the world, roughly 884 million, lacks access to

safe drinking water (Unicef/WHO).

At least 2.6 billion people, 41% of the global population, do not have proper

sanitation. (UN Water Council).

1.8 million Children die each year from diseases caused by unclean water and

poor sanitation. 5000 deaths per day…one every 20 seconds. (UNDP)

Water related disease is the world’s most serious health threat causing 90% of

sickness in developing countries. (WHO)

Providing water and hygiene education reduces diarrhea related diseases by 65%.

(WHO)

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Every year, more than 200 million tons of human sewage goes uncollected and

untreated. Each gram of feces can contain 10 million virus particles, 1 million

bacteria, 1,000 parasite cysts and 100 parasite eggs. (UN)

The average North American uses more than 100 gallons of water each day: the

average person in a developing country uses less than 3. (UNDP/WSSCC)

(Abukhater, 2013)

The land may be the issue of conflict…but the water is the soluble solution. In

Dan Smith’s book, The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution

(Smith, 2008) he states, “In 1967, upon occupying the West Bank, Israel declared all

water resources to be its property and instituted a strict system of licensing the

construction of new wells and pipes. Since 1982, increased Israeli use has dried up

Palestinian wells. Israel is slow to approve new water projects for Palestinian use,

controls how much water can be used by Palestinians and does not hide the fact that

more water goes to the Jewish settlements in the Occupied Territories than to the

ordinary Palestinian residents. In 2005 the recorded average daily use by Israelis was

350 liters compared to 60 liters by the Palestinians.” (P.57).

Human Rights should ALWAYS come before states rights.

In 1968 the Israeli occupation contained 400,000 Israelis living in Gaza, the West

Bank and East Jerusalem. Their settlements, actually small towns, were illegal under

the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention law known as the Law of War or as International

Humanitarian Law. The law bans a state from moving civilian population into

occupied territory. Anything done to that end is also illegal, including anything done

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to perpetuate the circumstances; such as laying claim to all the land and water rights.

In 2004, the International Court of Justice ruling said that the wall built as

a security barrier between Israel and the West Bank, was illegal. Yet, it still stands.

As do the rights to life sustaining water. This is a humanitarian atrocity. The Israeli

control of water resources places constraints on agriculture and economic scenarios

on the Palestinian people. The hope and dignity of the people of Palestine is

continually under attack. Their urge to fight in recourse is totally understandable. As

we saw in the videos in class and countless news scenes, Israelis have weapons and

funding from the United States. Palestinians have mostly rocks. That is not what I

would call a fair fight. My understanding is that the US provides this security to Israel

to hold its power in the oil rich Mid East protecting against the threat of Russia. So

why did we side with Israel and not the help the Arabs who hold the precious black

gold in neighboring countries? Another time another paper…

With the 1994 Peace treaty signing between Israel and Jordon, both countries

agreed to work at achieving settlements over water issues. Israel promised to provide

Jordan with 75 million cubic meters of water per year and conjunctly, Jordan agreed

to recognize Israel’s right to allocate water in the Jordan and Yarmouk rivers. They

also agreed they would “unify in solving future water needs for both countries and

initiate projects of regional and international cooperation to ensure the best

management and development of limited resources.” according to the Israeli Foreign

Ministry. (Westra, 2011) The Peace Treaty also stipulated that Israel and Jordan

would work bilaterally to prevent contamination of shared water resources and give

mutual assistance in the alleviation of water shortages.

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In June 1999, Israel, Jordan and the United States signed an agreement which

would begin a joint project to protect the Eilat-Aqaba Gulf. Joint teams of scientists

would work in unison to protect and research the coral reef reserves in the Gulf.

In December of 2013, Israel and Jordon green light the construction of a Red Sea-

Dead Sea water pipeline. Known as the Two Seas Canal, it will carry water north

from the Red Sea, slowing down the Dead Sea’s dehydration. A joint water

purification plant will be constructed and the Israelis and Jordanians will share the

water and sell a share of it to the Palestinians. According to the terms of the

agreement, “200 million cubic meters of water will be pumped annually out of the

Red Sea- 80 million metric cubes will be desalinated at a special facility in Aqaba,

Jordon; 30-50 million metric cubes will be allocated to Israel for use in the Araba and

Eilat; 30 million cubes will go to Jordan for their southern region; and, up to 30

million cubes will be sold to the Palestinian Authority.” (Abukhater, 2013)

Will the flow of water help all parties enough to present a plateau for Peace in the

Middle East? It certainly cannot hurt. Having water resources should allow for a stay

of calm once they are freely flowing. Agriculture can better be sustained and the

area’s economy can improve. The people of the Middle East can then play on a more

humane and level playing field. Dignity can begin to be restored and health concerns

diminished.

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The issue of Israel’s sovereignty is still at hand. They have abused their power

and privilege in response to the people of Palestine’s right to land and resources. Can

any of us imagine a relative moving into our home, imposing their rules, lifestyle and

personal issues all over us? Eating our food, infiltrating our bedroom, controlling the

television remote, using up all the hot water, and hogging the bathroom? Then when

we ask them to have some respect…they punch you in the face…with a grenade!

Allocating fair and equal resources based on population requisites is a good place

to start on the path toward peace. An equal share in democratic based voting systems

for both sides is mandatory to come to reconciliation. When Barak Obama won the

US presidency, he hinted at interest in promoting the concord in Israel by radically

modifying the US policy regarding Palestine during speeches in Istanbul and Cairo.

Unfortunately, he digressed and those allusions to a stronger helping hand to

Palestine’s plight have slid back to the pro-Israel stance. In his book Brokers of

Deceit, (Khalidi, 2013) Rashid Khalidi states “…this is important because even a

brief recap reveals a high degree of continuity in some of Obama’s publically

enunciated views on key issues throughout the entirety of the past nine years or so,

from the moment he first came to have a public record on aspects of the Palestinian-

Israeli issue. This is particularly true of those of his opinions that are clearly rooted in

core elements of the Israel-centric narrative about the Middle East that permeates and

dominates public and political discourse in the United States.“ (P.73-74)

The United States support of Israel is detrimental to peace in the region. The

inhuman conditions left for the Palestinian people allude to dismissal of our

brotherhood as a planetary species. How can we, as the wealthiest and most powerful

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nation on earth, stand idly by and watch these atrocities happen over decades just to

protect precious oil for entitled corporations. We were at a peaceable point with

Russia for many years after the cold war. There are other places to keep a watchful

eye from the forecast of opponents. In reality, do we as the United States of America

not hold enough of a threat yet to everyone else on the planet to govern any

adversarial rivals who may swoop in and steal the precious black gold? Would we

not, as a unified human entity pose a better future to us ALL if we shared our most

valuable life enabling resources, invested in renewable resources and preserved the

amity of our humanity? As I have told my son since he was a toddler, “Sharing is

Caring”, and it is time to do so before we as a species are in a “time out” that lasts

forever.

Bibliography

Abukhater, A. (2013). Water as a Catalyst for Peace : Transboundary Water Management and Conflict Resolution. New York: Routledge.

Barton, A. (2013). Crisis Spotlight - Water in Crisis - Middle East. Retrieved 5 16, 2014, from The Water Project: thewaterproject.org/watercrisisinthemiddleeast

Khalidi, R. (2013). Brokers of deceit: how the US has undermined peace in the Middle East. Boston, Mass: Beacon Press.

Lesch, D. W., & Haas, M. L. (2012). The Middle East and the United States: history, politics, and ideologies (5th edition ed.). Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Priscoli, J. D. (1999). Water and civilization: using history to reframe water. Institute for Water Resources-US Army Corps of Engineers,.

Smith, D. (2008). The State of the Middle East: An Atlas of Conflict and Resolution. Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Westra, L. (2011). Globalization, Violence and World Governance.