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229 comments on DrumBeat: July 16, 2007

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mcgowanmc on July 16, 2007 - 8:38am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Arkansawyer here.

The WND is not reliable. Kinda like Debka.

Second. I've never heard this-

In 1964, Syria diverted the Hasbani and Banyas rivers, depriving Israel of major fresh water resources. Israel retaliated by launching airstrikes at Syrian constructions.

But I have heard this-

Jordan 'nearly running dry'
The Dead Sea

Last Updated: Friday, 11 March 2005, 16:17 GMT

The Dead Sea is also under threat of drying up.
The river Jordan is in danger of disappearing altogether under pressure from huge water diversion programs, an environmental group has warned.

More than 90% of the water is being diverted by Israel, Jordan and Syria, Friends of the Earth Middle East say.

Water is more important than oil.

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Cid Yama on July 16, 2007 - 8:44am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Above post has multiple links to several sources.

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Gunga2006 on July 16, 2007 - 8:52am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

If Syria attacks Israel, how many days do you think it will take Israel to push within artillery range of Damascus? I think the over/under should be about 3.

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mcgowanmc on July 16, 2007 - 9:13am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Arkansawyer

BBC-

"1967: Israel launches attack on Egypt

Israeli forces have launched a pre-emptive attack on Egypt and destroyed nearly 400 Egypt-based military aircraft."

The Arab world waits for the US to withdraw from Iraq.

The status quo favors the Arab World.

The status quo does not favor Israel.

Is Jordan flowing toward oblivion?
Deseret News (Salt Lake City), Dec 3, 2006

DEGANYA, Israel -- At a baptismal site on the Jordan River just south of the Sea of Galilee, pilgrims kneel in the water as a priest intones a blessing, a high point of their visit to the Holy Land.

A few hundred yards downstream beyond an earthen dam, a pipe spews raw sewage into the riverbed, next to a canal dumping saline water collected from springs. With the fresh river water blocked by the dam, all that flows on is a polluted, salty stream meandering 60 miles south to the Dead Sea.

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LevinK on July 16, 2007 - 9:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

I'd say 2 hours. Damascus is only 50miles from the Golan Heights.

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mcgowanmc on July 16, 2007 - 9:09am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Arkansawyer

Yes, I agree. But no names used/anonymous means rumor.

And Syria has nothing to gain from attacking, while
Israel has a history of attacking.

This time last year Israel was trying to capture the Litani.

Didn't work out, but Israel still must have it.

Especially after Syria and Jordan have diverted the Yarmuk.

"We are calling for fresh water from the Kinneret to be restored to the Jordan River," says Bromberg." Litvinoff adds that even a partial restoration of water flow would help rehabilitate the river, slow the decline in the Dead Sea water level and allow for tourism development to replace agriculture.

FOEME has received a discouraging message on this score from the Water Commission. "Rehabilitating the Jordan is particularly problematic because it is a river shared with neighboring countries," Water Commissioner Shimon Tal wrote to Bromberg several weeks ago. "Channeling clear water to the river can only be done through full cooperation among the countries. In view of the water shortage in the region, especially in the neighboring countries, it is hard to believe there would be consent to this."

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Cid Yama on July 16, 2007 - 9:09am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

This story from April:

http://nycjewishnews.com/syria-threatens-war-olmert-dismissive

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mcgowanmc on July 16, 2007 - 9:22am Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Arkansawyer

From your article-

Israel has annexed the Golan Heights, the high ground overlooking northern Israel, after liberating it from Syria in 1967 during the Six Day War. More than 40,000 Israeli Jews now live in the Golan.

After liberating it?

Israel's Lifeline the Northern Water Sources
Three principal water sources barely suffice to supply the water requirements of the State of Israel:

The Banias and the Dan- presently flow through sovereign Israeli territory. Syria formerly controlled the sources of the Banias, while the sources of the Dan were right on the border. These waters were the cause of continuous Syrian aggression.

This danger became a real threat in the early Sixties, when the Syrians made an effort to divert the three river beds to a new water carrier, to divert the Banias to the Golan Heights and from there to the Yarmuk basin.

Syria, with plenty of water, would have gained no civilian advantage from this plan, except for the political objective of destroying Israel without having to go to war or employing military means.

Israel frustrated this plan from the outset by a combination of diplomatic efforts and military pressure, at the cost of many casualties and severe damage to front line settlements.

The struggle for the water continued for years and constituted one of the principal causes of the Six Day War....

C. The importance of the Kinneret basin, fed mainly by the Jordan sources, increases with each passing year, and under no circumstances must this source be endangered.

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