ABSTRACT
Water is a crucial issue for several Middle Eastern states, but for none, perhaps, more than Israel. The leadership of the pre-state Yishuv and afterward of Israel considered water a strategic, indeed an existential asset. The struggle over water sources was a major characteristic of the armistice regime. For Israel this was an issue of strategic importance which brooked no compromises. The climax of the struggle over water sources came later, when the Syrians attempted to divert the Jordan headwaters in order to prevent Israel from implementing its project to divert water from the Jordan to the Negev desert. This protracted conflict was a major cause of the deterioration in Israeli-Syrian security relations that culminated in the Six-Day War. Israel's chronic water shortage accounts for the strategic importance of the Jordan River, the main source of the country's flowing water.
