Today, while motoring towards the office, I heard a BBC program about water in the Middle East. The Jordanians have put up a white tent in the desert of the Jordan valley where various dignitaries are gathered to discuss the water crisis - the pollution of the river (which has been dammed upstream where it falls wholly within Israel) and the rapidly falling level of the Dead Sea. They interviewed a female Jordanian farmer who pointed out that her children would have to find jobs elsewhere, simply because the aridity of her farm is now so great that she can barely eke a living. Prince Hassan of Jordan pointed across the river to the West Bank (which was actually under Jordanian rule before 1967) where 80% of the underground aquifer is taken out by Israel.

The reporter crossed the river and interviewed Palestinian villagers who rely on a spring, but up on the hill above is an illegal Israeli settlement. The settlers regularly destroy the pipeline to the village, have tried to blow up the concrete bastion the Palestinians have built around their spring and shoot at Palestinians who try to go near it. The result is that the villagers are lucky to have water for an hour a day.

The reporter interviewed an Israeli spokesperson who said that Palestinians could not be trusted to control water properly. You only have to look at Gaza, he said, where they have dug illegal wells from which they draw water in a profligate fashion. (I have not put this in quotation marks, but it is a fairly precise quotation and the italicised word was definitely used).

Israel's per capita GDP is 10 times that of the West Bank and Gaza. A lot of this income relies on irrigation. A lot of settlements in the West Bank have swimming pools. They have water 24/7. Where are the swimming pools in Gaza's refugee camps? I mean, who the fuck is being 'profligate' with water?

The Israeli "solution" to the water crisis is to build desalination plants in Israel that will pipe water to the Palestinian territories and the Palestinians will not only have to pay, but can easily have their water cut off if they don't behave. As for the poor farmers on the east bank of the Jordan valley...

The reporter reached the gloomy conclusion that Palestinians will go on hating Israel with a passion that is unlikely to produce peace, even in the (unlikely) event that they can get their own state.

Here's an interesting link from Anne Summers' blog on the Australian abortion 'debate'. I'm sure that the conclusions can be applied to the political strategies of other right-wing politicians in the US and elsewhere.