Who exactly might be getting less out of the Red-Dead Sea deal?

...IF WE were to read a best-selling book on business negotiation, like Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes, Jim Thomas’s Negotiate to Win or Stuart Diamond’s Getting More we could characterize this deal as “negotiating to lose” or “getting less.” Yes, the Israeli negotiator Energy Minister Silvan Shalom did “get to yes” in what he called a “historic agreement,” but it isn’t clear what “yes” brings Israel.

Seth J. Frantzman..
Opinion Columnist/JPost..
09 December '13..

On December 9, an agreement was signed in Washington between Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority for a monumental water-sharing project that has been lauded as an example of peacemaking and cooperation. On the face of it, this is a positive step forward. Jordan, whose relations with Israel have been frosty of late, has signed onto building pipelines and infrastructure, and long-term water commitments with the Israelis. The Palestinians are being brought in as junior partners as well. A big step forward for constructive dialogue, and economic peace.

But let’s put aside the symbolic, fuzzy, cuddly aspect of this and look at the deal itself.

The deal involves several inter-related water-sharing initiatives the exact details of which appear to have not been ironed out completely. The broad strokes are that Jordan will build a desalination plant near Akaba, and some of the potable water it produces there will go to Israel. In return, Israel is to provide the Jordanians and PA with water from the Kinneret. In addition, a pipeline is to be built, in Jordan, that will transport water from the Red Sea’s Gulf of Akaba to the Dead Sea to combat the Dead Sea’s declining water level.

The details of exactly how much water is going where are not clear but according to the various reports around 200 million cubic meters will be piped out of the Red Sea, some 80 million of which are to be desalinated and divided between Israel and Jordan. Time magazine says “most of this water” will be going to Israel, but actually it seems like only up to 60 percent of it will.

Meanwhile Israel will increase the supply of water it provides Jordan from the Kinneret from 50 million cubic meters to upwards of 80 million (or 100 million if Time’s report is to be believed).

The Palestinians, whose sole contribution to the deal is to sign it, receive an addition 20 million cubic meters of water from the Kinneret (currently they receive 52 million).

Basically the story in a nutshell is that the Kinneret, which already suffers from low water levels, will be drained further to increase the PA and Jordan’s haul of Israeli water by 60%, so that the Jordanians can get a desalination plant in Akaba and Israel can then share some water from that plant and some water will be dumped into the Dead Sea, which benefits both Jordan and Israel.

IF WE were to read a best-selling book on business negotiation, like Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes, Jim Thomas’s Negotiate to Win or Stuart Diamond’s Getting More we could characterize this deal as “negotiating to lose” or “getting less.” Yes, the Israeli negotiator Energy Minister Silvan Shalom did “get to yes” in what he called a “historic agreement,” but it isn’t clear what “yes” brings Israel.

Steal it, waste it, but still complain? It's PA crying time again.

David M. Weinberg..
A Citadel Defending Zion..
19 July '12..

It comes back again and again: The canard that Israel is denying West Bank Palestinians water rights negotiated under the Oslo Accords. Just last week Haaretz regurgitated the issue with a story about water supply disruptions in eastern Jerusalem, and another story about confiscation of water tanks in the Jordan Valley. You had to read the fine print to discover that illegal Palestinian tapping into Israel's water lines were the cause of the problem.

For much too long, Israel has failed to respond fully to Palestinian water claims against Israel, which are ubiquitous in the U.N. and NGO world. Only recently has the Civil Administration and the Israeli Water Authority, along with one of Israel's top hydrologists, Professor Haim Gvirtzman of the Institute of Earth Sciences at the Hebrew University, begun to fight back with properly documented counter-claims.

The newly released studies show clearly that Israel has fulfilled all of its obligations according to the agreements it signed in 1995 with the Palestinian Authority (and in fact has exceeded them), while the Palestinians are wasting tremendous amounts of water while refusing to utilize modern water conservation or sewage treatment methods.

In an exceptional study published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies, Gvirtzman shows that large differences in per-capita consumption of natural water between Jews and Arabs that existed in 1967, when the administration of Judea and Samaria was handed over from Jordan to Israel, have been reduced over the last 40 years and are now negligible. The Palestinian Authority currently consumes 200 million cubic meters of water every year, with Israel providing more than a quarter of this. This is more than Israel is supposed to provide to a full Palestinian state under a final settlement arrangement.

Nevertheless, the Palestinian Authority claims that it suffers from water shortages in its towns and villages due to the Israeli occupation, and it cites international law in support of its claims. These claims amount to more than 700 million cubic meters of water per year, including rights over the groundwater reservoir of the mountain aquifer, the Gaza Strip coastal aquifer and the Jordan River. These demands amount to more than 50 percent of the total natural water available between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

Gvirtzman refutes these claims and points to the real problem: The Palestinian Authority employs no sustainable development practices when it comes to water usage. It has done nothing to prevent massive leaking in its domestic pipelines, nothing to implement conservative irrigation techniques, and nothing to recycle sewage water for irrigation.

'Water Not Being Withheld In West Bank'

Yaakov Katz
JPost
04 August 09

Palestinian and international claims that Israel denies water rights in the West Bank are "baseless and incorrect," Lt.-Col. Amnon Cohen, head of the civil administration's infrastructures department, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

According to Cohen, recent media reports - including in the BBC - are based on false information regarding the water situation in the West Bank from a recent World Bank report, which claimed that Israel is getting four times more water than the Palestinians.

"Indeed, availability of water resources is highly disparate, with fresh water per capita in Israel approximately four times that of the West Bank and Gaza Strip," the report claimed. "Whereas Israel has established efficient water infrastructure and management, the PA is struggling to attain the basic level of infrastructure and service of a low-income country.

Related: Bethlehem Residents Have No Water Because of Congress

According to Cohen, the report was based on incorrect information. Cohen recently met with World Bank officials to present them with the Israeli version of the water situation in the West Bank.

For example, he said, in 2007 the Palestinians received 47 million cubic meters of water and in 2008 over 52 million.

In addition, Cohen revealed in an interview earlier this week, Israel recently allocated a piece of beach land next to Hadera for the Palestinians to use to build a water desalination plant, which, if operated, would provide over 100 million cubic meters of water annually.

"The land was allocated over a year ago and the Palestinians have yet to move forward with the project," he said.

"The Palestinians do not cooperate to try and independently improve their water situation," Cohen added. "While we in Israel are cutting back on water use due to the drought and imposing fines on people who use too much water, the Palestinians are doing nothing of the kind."

Another example has to do with well digging in the West Bank. The Palestinians claimed that while the Israeli-PA joint water committee approved the drilling of 82 wells, none have been carried out due to Israeli refusal.

"This is nonsense," Cohen explained. "Out of the 82, 43 are Areas A and B which are under PA control and they do not need us involved. Out of the remaining 39, in Area C and under Israeli security control, 21 have been approved and 11 have not even been submitted for approval."

According to Cohen, dozens of drillings have been approved over the years but the Palestinians have not acted upon them. There are already 11 open wells in the territories that have not been connected to pumps, he added.

"If they were to connect the wells, they would get another 11 million cubic meters of water," he said.
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