October 1990, Page 6

Special Report

U.S. Needs to Practice Symmetry in How it Views Oil and Water

By Rachelle Marshall

Contrary to conventional wisdom, sometimes oil and water do mix. In the current Middle East crisis the two make a dangerous combination. On Aug. 11, as a massive U.S. military force headed for the Persian Gulf to protect Saudi Arabian oil fields militarily and enforce a blockade to challenge Saddam Hussein's seizure of Kuwait oil fields, a story about a seizure of water was all but buried. Yet the news it contained is important to an understanding of Hussein's appeal as an Arab leader, even to some people in countries whose governments oppose him.

The two-inch article on the last page of the San Francisco Chronicle's entertainment section reported an announcement by Israel's minister of agriculture that "Israel's survival involves complete continued control of the water and sewage systems" of the West Bank and Gaza. Israel would never surrender this control, the minister asserted.

Rubbing Salt in a Wound

There was no outcry in the West over this report, undoubtedly because there is nothing new about Israel's intention to hold on to the water sources it seized from the Palestinians in 1967. Nevertheless, the Israeli statement rubbed salt in a wound that is at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict. If cheap oil is essential to the economy of the industrial nations, water is even more vital to the economies of the Arab world. As any history of the Middle East shows, access to water has been a determining factor in shaping the region's development.

Since 1967, when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza, Israeli authorities have all but prohibited Palestinian farmers from digging new wells or improving old ones. At least 83 percent of the water in the West Bank is diverted to Israel or to Jewish settlements. It constitutes a third of all the water used in Israel within the green line that separates it from the occupied territories. The theft of water, along with more than 80 percent of their land, has affected almost every aspect of life for the Palestinians, who for a thousand years tended orchards and raised livestock. Since 1967, tens of thousands of Palestinians who were once self-sufficient have been driven off the land and forced to work as cheap labor in Israel. In Gaza, according to Professor Israel Shahak of Hebrew University, "Palestinian agriculture is being systematically dried up and destroyed," as water is diverted to flourishing Jewish settlements.

Not One Cent for Water

The U.S. has made it clear that in case of an Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia, it is prepared to spend an estimated billion dollars a day, and send unknown numbers of Americans, Iraqis, and others to their deaths, in order to prevent Saddam Hussein from raising the price of oil by a few dollars a barrel. Yet no American president has shown remotely comparable concern for Israel's seizure of neighboring lands-the West Bank, Gaza, the Golan Heights, and southern Lebanon-and the confiscation of their resources.

Millions of Arabs resent this asymmetry in U.S. policy. For years they have seen the U.S. give unstinting support to Israeli governments that have systematically exploited and persecuted the Palestinians. Saddam Hussein is brutal and ruthless, but he has defied Israel and the United States, and bitterly criticized the feudal monarchs of the Gulf for failing to share their enormous wealth with poorer Arab nations. Because he appears as a champion of the Palestinian cause and of the Arab masses, Saddam is popular today throughout the Arab world, even among those who would normally deplore his actions. According to reports from Jerusalem and Amman, he has enthusiastic support among Palestinians, whose grievances are ignored and who receive nothing but humiliation from Washington. The East Jerusalem weekly, Al Nadwa, reported recently that 60 percent of Israel's Arab citizens also support the Iraqi leader.

This upsurge of support suggests that even if the United States succeeds in crushing Saddam Hussein, the victory will only be a temporary one. As long as deep, unresolved grievances persist among the majority of Arabs, another equally defiant, and perhaps even more militant leader will arise to take his place-if not in Iraq, then elsewhere. Only a comprehensive peace settlement, achieved through negotiations between all parties to the Middle East conflict, can help heal the divisions Saddam is exploiting. Only when they enjoy both justice and national security will the peoples of the Middle East-including Palestinians and Israelis-be likely to turn their backs on demagogues.

Rachelle Marshall is a free-lance editor living in Stanford, CA. She is a member of New Jewish Agenda and writes frequently on the Middle East.