Israel lowers tone in water dispute with Lebanon
U.S. Water News Online
JERUSALEM -- Israel has no intention of going to war over steps being taken by Lebanon to divert water from one of the tributaries of the Jordan River, one of Israel's prime water sources, the armed forces chief has said.
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Lebanon's move to divert water from the Hasbani River will be dealt with through diplomatic channels.
Israel's first reaction, when the construction of a pumping station along the Hasbani was discovered, was to send sharp messages to Lebanon and Syria saying Israel cannot ignore the Lebanese action.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Israel treated attempts by Syria to divert the headwaters of the Jordan River as a casus belli. Israeli tanks and aircraft were sent to destroy Syrian bulldozers being used in attempts to divert two other tributaries of the Jordan. The clashes over water rights were one of the causes of the 1967 Middle East war.
But recently, Israel was stressing that it has no desire to go to war over the Lebanese action.
``I don't think we should indulge in fiery rhetoric and should certainly not be talking about war,'' the army's chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Shaul Mofaz, told Israel army radio. ``We have no intentions of that kind.''
Even hard-line Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said that for Israel this was a life and death issue, adopted a more conciliatory tone on . ``The last thing we need is a war or an outbreak of violence on the northern border,'' he said.
On the Lebanese side of the border, work on the new pumping station was proceeding slowly. Scores of Lebanese, apparently attracted by Israel's protests and the international attention aroused by the dispute, were watching the work. A Lebanese flag had been planted in the ground at the construction site.
The Hasbani accounts for 14 percent of the water flowing into the Sea of Galilee, Israel's biggest freshwater reservoir. Israel is currently undergoing a water crisis and the lake is at its lowest level ever.
However Israel has been at pains to maintain quiet on its northern border since it withdrew its forces from south Lebanon last May after an 18-year war against Lebanese and Palestinian guerrillas.
Although Israel has no peace agreement with Syria or Lebanon, the status quo between them on water resources has been governed by international conventions and by an understanding brokered by the United States in 1956, known as the Johnson Agreement.
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