Page 35 - Social Science.docx

Irrigation in modern israel
technologies in this area, which can greatly benefit other countries that face similar challenges. Originally, Israeli scientists were trying to improve life in their country, but their discoveries look very applicable to the entire region and the rest of the world. Jacobsen interviewed Osnat Gillor, a professor at the Zuckerberg Institute who studies the use of recycled wastewater on crops, and she says that “the Middle East is drying up,” and that “the only country that isn’t suffering acute water stress is Israel.”14 Bar-Zeev acknowledges that water will likely be a source of conflict in the Middle East in the future, but he believes that “water can be a bridge, through joint ventures,” and that “one of those ventures is desalination.”15 One example of this vision as shown by Jacobsen are the plans to build a $900 million Red Sea–Dead Sea Canal. This has been thought about as a joint venture between Israel and Jordan. The proposal is to build a large desalination plant on the Red Sea, where they share a border, and divide the water among Israelis, Jordanians and the Palestinians. Furthermore they are planning to channel the brine discharge from the plant, 100 miles to the North through Jordan, in order to replenish the Dead Sea. They are expecting that maybe by the end of 2020, these old adversaries “will be drinking water from the same tap.” It is evident that water stress has been a major factor in the turmoil tearing apart the Middle East, but Bar-Zeev believes that “Israel’s solutions can help its parched neighbors, too—and in the process, bring together old enemies in a common cause.”16
Israelis have great merit for solving their location, agricultural and water challenges through the application of scientific knowledge and through education. Tal notes that Israel has needed “to reaffirm its historic obligation and try to meet the biblical standard of turning the land
14 Jacobsen "Israel Proves the Desalination Era Is Here," Scientific American. 15 Ibid.
16 Ibid.
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