Arab news: Jordanian water, Arab war, Iran

If you’re like most non-Arabs, you probably don’t read the Arab Press. That could be a mistake.

Arabs are at war with Israel. They can’t stop talking about it. They won’t stop talking about it.

Even when Israel’s Arab neighbours do not talk about the Arab war against Israel, that war seems very close.

Here are some headlines for—and personal comments about—stories from Israel’s Arab neighbours. The headlines come from December 5-11, 2013.

 

From Palestinian (PA) news

 -African immigrants protest Israel detention

 -Israel confiscates private Palestinian land near Nablus

 -Israeli forces detain 17 in West Bank arrest raids

-Hamas agrees to join unity government ahead of elections

 -Why Palestine should seek justice at the International Criminal Court

-Defending Geneva: Understanding Israel's opposition to peace with Iran

-Tel Aviv 'Nakba' film festival keeps alive memories of 1948 in Israel

-Thousands face uncertainty over Jerusalem demolition threat

-Rights group urges tougher EU measures on settler violence

-Bible scholars: Zionists have 'weaponized' scripture

 

What’s interesting about this PA news cycle is that some of its stories aren’t so new. The last six stories above come from weeks before—carried forward for reader pleasure, no doubt.

But these last stories are not pleasure features. They’re political; and by saying, for example, that ‘Zionists weaponize’ the Bible, they cross the line into anti-Semitism.

Such a story might even be racist. Have you heard any Human Rights organizations complain?

  

Jordan

-Melting snow raising dam levels

-Man shoots wife in the foot

-Queen Rania chairs Arab Open University board meeting

-Rights group raises alarm over migrants in Qatar

-Workshop focuses on compliance with water regulations

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 Jordan national interests do not include an obsession with Israel. In at least part of this week’s news cycle, Syria had more mentions than Israel.

However, you may wish to make note of the headline above  about water. The title of this news item seems innocuous (“Workshop focuses on compliance with water regulations”). But it isn’t.

It reveals a hidden truth about the Arab war of hate against Israel.

This Jordanian story is not about Israel. It’s about Jordanians. It’s about a Jordanian need for its citizens to become more careful about water. Look closely at the headline. Can you see the hidden truth?

In the Middle East, water is scarce. While Israel has, to a great extent, solved most of its water supply problems, Arabs have not.

Therefore, water becomes a weapon in the Arab war against Israel.

Briefly, the Palestinian Authority (PA) accuses Israel of stealing, restricting or holding back water under its control.  Since water is so limited here—and since Israel does so well with water issues--the PA accuses Israel of helping itself at the Arab’s expense.

In a water-starved region, that’s oppression of a particularly cruel kind.  The United Nations has done water-use studies. The UN says that the amount of water Arabs receive from Israel is below the amount Israel is supposed to supply. Their conclusion is, the Arab water-accusation is true.

Nobody wonders if Arab water-piracy could reduce Arab water-use numbers. Nobody wonders if, between Israeli sources and Arab end-users, Arab water-piracy could account for the low amount of water Arabs say they receive from Israel. Instead, everyone simply concludes they have found another reason to demonize Israel.

But this headline in Jordan reveals a hidden truth. Unlike Israel headlines about water, this one is not about conservation. It’s about compliance.

There’s a very big difference between ‘conservation’ and ‘compliance’. Do you begin to see the hidden truth here?

Some pro-Israel advocates have suggested that part of the Arab water-problem is not Israel. Israel, they say, has actually been allocating more water to Arabs in Palestinian Authority areas than they had contracted to supply through the 1992-4 Oslo Accords. The problem, they suggest, is not water-sourcing from Israel. It’s water piracy by Arabs.

To put this argument another way, only Jews seem to believe that a large part of the Arab’s water problem is due to non-compliant uses of water by Arabs. But this headline—and another Jordanian headline like it from October, 2013 (("Priority is combating illegal wells, not raising water tariffs”) suggest a different story. They suggest that illegal Arab water use is a bonafide problem. They suggest that, once again, Israel-haters may have gotten it wrong: Arab water-problems aren’t exacerbated by Jew-control; it’s exacerbated by Arab theft.

The truth is often revealed when the world of lies becomes visible.

  

Saudi Arabia

-Rice firms fined for cheating

-Blood banks to be linked electronically

-Saudis, Emiratis join hands to mark week for disabled

-Saudi envoy: West’s policies on Syria and Iran dangerous gamble

 

As Saudi Arabia focused on its own national concerns, it nonetheless came out strongly this week against the West’s approach to Syria and Iran. As many have already noted, the Saudis are unhappy with the West’s do-nothing approach to Syria and Iran. Saudis feel that Western ‘diplomacy’ creates a danger the Saudis are no longer willing to be silent about. They cannot, they now say, stand idly by.

Sounds like a threat, doesn’t it? It certainly suggests a lack of trust in the USA.

Does such criticism suggest an American success with Syria and Iran—or incompetence?