(Continued from p.3)
in war. If that were not the case, it would encourage aggression and render the principle of justice a fraud. On the basis of this rule, for example, the Axis states in World War II lost extensive territories. Germany alone lost Eastern Prussia, Pomerania, Silesia, Sudetenland, and Alsace Lorraine. Egypt forfeited Sinai in the Six Day War on the same principle of international law. Ceding Sinai to Egypt was therefore not only a strategic failure which ended Israel's chance to achieve the status of regional power, but also a precedent for crowding Israel into the 1949 borders. Relinquishing the Golan Heights -- a Syrian springboard for three attempts to destroy Israel in three wars and countless acts of terror -- will not only encourage Arab aggression, but also serve as an acknowledgment of the Arab claim that Israel was the aggressor in all its wars. In this way, the moral basis for the existence of the Jewish state will be undermined.6. The American Abandonment
The extent of the aid granted by a superpower to a small country stands in direct proportion to the benefit which the superpower accrues from its tiny ally, and that is the essence of the term "strategic asset." The benefit ends -- the aid ceases. Israel, an emasculated mini-state in non-defensible borders, will turn into a political liability which will be abandoned at the first opportunity. This situation has been steadily developing since the collapse of the Soviet Union. Israel is no longer a front-line entrenchment against Soviet efforts to achieve hegemony in the Middle East, but it is still an asset which can be exploited. The asset is Israel itself. Through its dismemberment, Washington hopes to gain Arab goodwill.
U.S. policy is understandable. It is enough to glance at the map of the Middle East to discern the asymmetry between Israel and the Semitic expanse which stretches from the Atlantic Ocean to the Persian Gulf. However the administration's unqualified support of Arafat is unprecedented and attests to the nadir to which Israel's status has deteriorated in the eyes of the White House. For in case anyone has forgotten, Israel is Washington's official ally, with five strategic signed agreements, in 1975, 1981, 1983, 1985, and 1987. The last and most imporant of them characterizes Israel as a "non-NATO major ally," making Israel's status vis-a-vis the United States comparable to that of Britain, the Netherlands or Germany.
On the other hand, Arafat and many of the heads of his organization, under American law, are habitual criminal leaders of terrorist gangs, guilty of premeditated murder of American citizens, beginning with the Ambassador to the Sudan who was murdered on Arafat's direct order, continuing through the murder of hostages (the Klinghoffer episode is but one of many) and ending with the murder of American citizens in Israel.
But all these considerations (not to mention "identity of values," "the Bible as the cultural basis for both nations," "the only democracy in the Middle East," and similar rhetoric recited in great seriousness on festive occasions) are collapsing under the weight of political Machiavellianism seeking short-term gains at the expense of a dull-witted junior partner.
7. Loss of Water
Israel is a semi-arid country with an annual water supply averaging about 350 c.m. person. The minimum recommended by the UN is 500 c.m. Hence, even today, Israel is below the minimum recommended standard. The water potential of western Israel is 1.8 billlion c.m. which is divided among a population numbering approximately 8 million. This means that the water supply per person is rapidly decreasing because while the population is growing at an accelerated pace, the water supply remains constant. The three main water sources, exploited to the last drop, are the Sea of Galilee basin, the mountain aquifer and the coastal aquifer. This supply serves agriculture, industry and homes. On average, therefore, we are speaking of 225 c.m. per person as opposed to 1,200 c.m. in Egypt, 2,000 in Syria and 20,000 in the United States. Suffice it to say that the average water supply in Israel which must serve agriculture, industry and homes is approximately equivalent to the amount allotted for watering gardens in California.
Relinquishing the Golan to Syria means yielding 70% of the Sea of Galilee basin, the only above-ground aquifer in western Israel, which supplies the Transpipeline, the lifeline of the Jewish state. Loss of territorial control over the Sea of Galilee's sources -- the Golan rivers -- and their partial impounding by the Syrians will lower the Sea of Galilee to a level at which irreparable harm will be caused to the lake.
The mountain aquifer, which supplies approximately 600 million c.m., will for the most part be under the territorial jurisdiction of the Palestinian state which possesses no other water sources. Four hundred million c.m. of the mountain aquifer's waters are directed to the coastal plain annually. According to international law, Israel can perpetuate the present situation, leaving the Palestinian Authority with 200 c.m.[at current population levels]...But is it really possible to imagine that the Arabs of Judea and Samaria will allow most of the water in their jurisdition to flow uninterrupted to the Jews living in the adjacent lowlands?
The coastal aquifer, located almost completely
(Continued on p.5)
Outpost - 4 - September 1999