opinions & letters
Climate Change Could Be
an Opportunity for Israel
BY EYAL ZISSER
robuart / iStock / Getty Images Plus
T he latest round of escalation
in the Gaza Strip wasn’t even
over when Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah rushed to threaten another
round of fi ghting on the northern
border if Israel does not comply with
his demands on the Israel-Lebanon
maritime border.

His threats of war were only one of
the reasons this summer has been a
particularly hot one, even before we
shifted into high gear with Israel’s
upcoming elections.

The weather isn’t making things
easy. This summer saw record-break-
ing heat indices, and fl eeing to
Europe isn’t an option because of
unprecedented heat waves across
the continent.

But for most Israelis, this was nothing more than
a passing nuisance, one that air conditioning or
a visit to the pool or beach can make bearable.

We’ve gotten used to the warnings that the coun-
try is drying up. Calls to save water aren’t making
an impression. It seems that, in Israel, there is no
lack of water for drinking or agriculture thanks
to the desalination facilities built over the past
decade. Still, there is reason to worry, not only about
what lies ahead, but what is happening all around
us, outside our little piece of land, which seems to
be a paradise — a desert oasis.

In the Middle East, the climate crisis is not a
far-distant prospect, but something that is happen-
ing now and causing real damage. Temperatures of
over 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit)
have been recorded in the Persian Gulf, Iran and
southern Iraq. Experts think that the future could
see temperatures of 60 degrees Celsius (140
degrees Fahrenheit) or even higher. In the United
Arab Emirates, like Israel, people can seek haven
in air-conditioned buildings, but cannot do so in
large sections of the region, where there is no
steady supply of electricity or water to homes. In
the not-too-distant future, parts of the region will
become unlivable for humans, forcing millions to
abandon their homes and migrate north in search
of other places to live and work.

In our region, water is becoming a scarce and
precious resource. The long-term droughts com-
bine with heat waves to dry up rivers and water
reservoirs on which much of the region’s popula-
tion depends. In Syria, weather disasters have led
to economic distress, exacerbating a bloody civil
war in which half a million Syrians lost their homes.

The future isn’t looking bright for those who sur-
vived the war and stayed in the country.

Egypt below the Nile is no longer able to
depend on the river like it used to. In addi-
tion to climate damage, Ethiopia has built the
Renaissance Dam near the source of the Nile,
prompting Egypt to threaten war for fear that the
dam would reduce the amount of water that fl ows
into the Nile, depriving 100 million Egyptians of
their potable water.

Jordan, Israel’s neighbor, is also in greater dis-
tress than it has ever been. Refugees from Syria
and those from Iraq who preceded them have
increased Jordan’s population from seven million
to 11 million. Jordan constantly faces shortages of
water, and heat waves are exacerbating the prob-
lem by drying up the kingdom’s reservoirs.

This crisis situation applies to most of the coun-
tries in the region, from Yemen to Iran to Oman to
Lebanon. The Middle East is turning into a disaster area,
due in part to actions by humans and their oppres-
sive, corrupt and failed regimes, but also in part
due to climate change fallout.

This reality gives Israel an opportunity to anchor
its status in the region as a leading nation, tech-
nologically as well as militarily, by helping its allies
with water supply and advanced technology.

But the crisis itself is beyond Israel’s powers to
contain, so it must be on guard in light of possi-
ble instability in many Arab nations, which could
aff ect what happens on our borders. Either way,
we are no longer a villa in the jungle, but an oasis
in the heart of the desert. JE
Eyal Zisser is a lecturer in the Middle East History
Department at Tel Aviv University. This article was
originally published by Israel Hayom.

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