ABSTRACT
Recent Near East peace negotiations have focused attention on growing water scarcity in Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. The region’s sustainable water endowment appears inadequate to support current levels of water usage and is grossly insufficient to meet projected future requirements. It has been suggested that this shortage could pose a serious complication for the Near East peace talks and may even lead to renewed warfare. Joyce Starr, Chairwoman of the Global Water Summit Initiative, recently predicted that “water security will soon rank with military security in the war rooms of defense ministries.” 1 In a similar vein, Thomas Naff has warned that the Near East’s water scarcity is likely to lead to “internal civil disorder, changes in regime, political radicalization and instability.” 2
