Old Feud Over Lebanese River Takes New Turn (latimes.com)

[norml]

WARFARE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Old Feud Over Lebanese River Takes New Turn

Israel's airstrikes on canals renew enduring suspicions that it covets water from the Litani. The Jewish state denies having any such designs.

By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
August 10, 2006


QASMIYA, Lebanon — Israeli bombing has knocked out irrigation canals supplying Litani River water to more than 10,000 acres of farmland and 23 villages in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, prompting accusations here that Israel is using its war against Hezbollah to lay claim to Lebanon's prime watersheds.

Heavy fighting and a series of targeted strikes on open water channels and underground water diversion pipes have suspended much of Lebanon's agricultural use of the Litani River along the coastal plain and in parts of the Bekaa Valley near Qaraoun Dam, said water engineers who have surveyed the south.

The damaged or broken facilities include a pumping station on the Wazzani River, whose inauguration by Lebanon in 2002 prompted Israel to threaten military action because it diverted water a few hundred yards from the Israeli border, in a watershed that feeds the Jordan River, Lebanese officials said. At the time, Hezbollah promised to defend the facility.

The strikes went largely unnoticed by the outside world in the nearly monthlong air assault targeting Hezbollah guerrilla strongholds in southern Lebanon. But Lebanese point to the extensive damage to their irrigation and drinking water system as evidence that border security and water issues remain intertwined in a region short on both.

"Whenever Israel throughout history has thought of its northern border, they don't talk, for example, of the mountains as a border. They always think of the valley of the Litani," said Mohammed Shaya, dean of the college of social sciences at Lebanese University in Beirut.


snip


http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-litani10aug10,1,3878441.story?coll=la-news-a_section

[stepnw1f]

1. What Duer Called This? It Was about Resources, Afterall.....

Somebody here on DU said the invasion was about resources and not retaliation... now I am starting to believe it too.

[Tempest]

2. Litani River and Israel-Lebanon

http://www.american.edu/ted/ice/litani.htm

[norml]

3. You Can't Drink Mud and Salt: Hydropolitics and the Invasion of Lebanon

You Can't Drink Mud and Salt: Hydropolitics and the Invasion of Lebanon
Reported by Marie Therese - August 7, 2006 - 69 comments

ب در کوزه و ما تشنه لبان میگردیم.
"There is water in the jug, and we're going around thirsty." - Persian proverb

אל תסתכל בקנקן, אלא במה שבתוכו
"Don't look at the jar, but at what's inside it." - Hebrew proverb

"The one who tells the stories rules the world." - Hopi proverb

NEWS HOUNDS EDITORIAL

Three weeks ago I woke up.

It was a painful experience because I had always thought of myself as an educated person, well aware of what was going on politically, even in the Middle East.

I was very, very wrong.

"There is water in the jug, and we're going around thirsty."

On July 17th, I googled the words "Israel Lebanon Water".

When the results came back, my world shifted 180 degrees. There, on my computer screen, appeared a mountain of data consisting of geological surveys, erudite articles, aquifer tables and power point presentations. Numerous other searches verifed the inescapable facts. No matter whether the studies were done by European consortiums, Palestinian experts, American think tanks or Israeli university professors, the resulting scientific conclusions were the same.

Forget all the overblown tabloid rhetoric about "terrorists", "right to defend borders", "holy war against the infidels", "oil" and "the axis of evil".

Doesn't mean a thing.

That's just pure verbal drama created by the various factions in the Middle East to avoid talking about the 5,000 pound gorilla in the room.

Water.

The Middle East is in an ecological death spiral. Period.

snip

http://www.newshounds.us/2006/08/07/you_cant_drink_mud_and_salt_hydropolitics_and_the_invasion_of_lebanon.php

[Mandate My Ass]

4. They're also taking up all the aquifers and wells

in the West Bank. Israel is profligate with water like the US. They need the water and they're taking it by force. The security fence in the West Bank is really a barrier that illegally puts aquifers and the most fertile land on the Israeli side of the barrier.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,1034483,00.html

A short drive east of Qalqilya, the gates are open in Jayyous where the fence runs between the village and valuable agricultural lands and greenhouses. But some of the locals are so convinced that one day the Israelis will lock them, they choose to sleep with their vegetables. As in Baqa al-Sharqia, residents can only think of one explanation for the route of the fence. Both villages have not only some of the West Bank's most fertile land but an equally precious commodity in a parched region - water. They sit atop the western aquifer basin which produces about half of all the water on the West Bank. But while the fence can easily divide the land and aquifers from the village in Jayyous, in Baqa al-Sharqia it's a different story. "It's hard to separate our village from the wells, so they've put us all on the Israeli side of the wire," says Moayad Hussain, the mayor. "Water is almost as important to them as land so they have to take us, but they are already making life difficult in the hope we will go away."

[anotherdrew]

10. if they need water I'm sure Helliburton can build desalination plants

solar powered state of the art technology has come a long way, oh and then there's conservation. But no, it's easier to go kill people and take their water. Although I'd recomend a different contractor, but maybe running a few billion thru Helliburton will enable bush to be happy even with less death.

[acmavm]

6. A lot of us did.

[theHandpuppet]

7. Here are two of the threads

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1698430
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=1696420

[Joanne98]

5. Here's some maps.......

http://www.mideastweb.org/water.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/iraq/map_midEastNR.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2000/world_water_crisis/default.stm

[anotherdrew]

8. airstrikes on canals, irrigation and drinking water system - PROOF OF PLOT

This makes it clear that israel's right-wing leadership is pursuing it's own private agenda and intentionally provoking hostilities with arabs so they can then "fight back". Olmert and his gang of thugs must pay for this utter hypocrisy. This complete disregard for the safety of their own citizens. SHAME on anyone in Israel not working to remove these pigs from power.

[Hoping4Change]

9. Thanks for posting. Recommended .

[cyberpj]

11. The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil (and Water):

Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World's largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more than a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?

Virtually unnoticed, the inauguration of the Ceyhan-Tblisi-Baku (BTC) oil pipeline, which links the Caspian sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, took place on the 13th of July, at the very outset of the Israeli sponsored bombings of Lebanon.

snip...
The BTC pipeline totally bypasses the territory of the Russian Federation. It transits through the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia, both of which have become US "protectorates", firmly integrated into a military alliance with the US and NATO. Moreover, both Azerbaijan and Georgia have longstanding military cooperation agreements with Israel.

snip...
War and Oil Pipelines

Prior to the bombing of Lebanon, Israel and Turkey had announced the underwater pipeline routes, which bypassed Syria and Lebanon. These underwater pipeline routes do not overtly encroach on the territorial sovereignty of Lebanon and Syria.

On the other hand, the development of alternative land based corridors (for oil and water) through Lebanon and Syria would require Israeli-Turkish territorial control over the Eastern Mediterranean coastline through Lebanon and Syria.

The implementation of a land-based corridor, as opposed to the underwater pipeline project, would require the militarisation of the East Mediterranean coastline, extending from the port of Ceyhan across Syria and Lebanon to the Lebanese-Israeli border.

Is this not one of the hidden objectives of the war on Lebanon? Open up a space which enables Israel to control a vast territory extending from the Lebanese border through Syria to Turkey.

much more:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=CHO20060726&articleId=2824

[donkeyotay]

12. The look on the bow-tied wonder's face, ol' wha's his name

as he was standing near the border interviewing the Lebanese ambassador. The contrast between the two countries is stark - it's like night and day, only it's brown and green, and he asks, "Why is Lebanon all brown?" and the ambassador just says, "I don't know. You tell me."

[stepnw1f]

13. kick for Exposure! (nt)

[autorank]

14. Excellent find - the cycle from "tin foil" to "real story" is so much ....

...shorter now days. It used to take months, years, to get a legitimate speculation raised, if were ever raised. Why destroy infrastructure unless you have negative intentions toward the people who rely on that infrastructure. This is really pertinent and inexcusable at the same time.

[EFerrari]

15. Another deadly liquid. K&R

[eridani]

16. "It's the water" (TM)

http://cgi.ebay.com/Vintage-Olympia-Its-The-Water-Glass-Bar-Pub-Sign-NR_W0QQitemZ220013093975QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting

[RedEarth]

17. A week or so ago, our local newspaper had an article

dealing with the same issue...the opinion of the writer(a professor at OU) was the Litani River was one of the primary reasons for the invasion. It sure seems that way now.

[Thickasabrick]

18. The Guardian has an article today that states the Israeli plan

was to occupy the area up to the Litani river. The only thing that postponed it was Condi asking them to wait. This really makes you wonder about what Israel's motives are.

Here's the link to the article:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1842792,00.html

[Tom Joad]

19. Convoy of aid to be delivered to Lebanon. by common citizens.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1883374