Water, Trump, and Israel’s National Security

[Donald Schaefer 0]

Please consider adding the link to my recently published paper entitled, “Water, Trump, and Israel’s National Security” to your web site. Here is the link https://besacenter.org/mideast-security-and-policy-studies/water-israel-national-security/ .

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Access to potable water is critical for Israel’s future, yet the country depends more and more on its desalination plants, aquifers, and water from outside its borders. Pollution and other factors may jeopardize water supplies as Israel extracts oil and natural gas on and off its coast. American oil and natural gas firms, with the assistance of the Trump administration, may pressure the Israeli government to allow the extraction of these resources in exchange for additional assistance. Jerusalem must put access to potable water at the forefront of its national security goals.

 

Sincerely,

 

Dr. Donald D.A. Schaefer

[Gerry Maddoux + 3,627]

As a friend of Israel, I think you have this backwards: Trump is not interested in proselytizing your offshore oil and gas and neither are US companies that I know about—they have a full plate right now. Just the converse: President Trump would be delighted to do a deal with Israel; you buy our NG and crude and we (the US) will accept your cutting edge technology security sharing and monitoring of the ME as quid pro quo. I think drilling off your shore, then using desalination from the same area is like drinking your own bath water. And I say that as a friend, whose brother was named David Lavon—arguably the most Hebrew of all names. 

[NickW + 2,714]

Any prospect of building the Med / red Sea - Dead Sea Hydro and Pump storage scheme?  That would generate a lot of juice for desal and may actually save the Dead Sea from drying out. 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Qatar is a very similar situation...

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,192]

8 hours ago, Donald Schaefer said:

Please consider

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Access to potable water is critical for Israel’s future,

Sincerely,

Dr. Donald D.A. Schaefer

 

Instead of writing papers about the horrors of becoming energy independent and not being a 100% vassal/supplicant to the USA or some other power you have to suck up to(Saudi Arabia your sworn enemy), write about more water storage or pipe to the Dead sea instead.  Especially when everyone around you tells everyone, and lobs missiles/bombs your direction daily, they wish to kill you off the face of the earth.  Recharging your aquifers, which Israel is already doing is a good start.  Building more dams and creating pumped hydro storage/water storage would be another great place to start. 

As for your "paper".  Getting water from far beneath surface of the ocean, desalination plants don't give a damn about oil in the water as: oil floats and so does benzene.  Likewise the vapor pressure for Benzene is low which means even if you had a 100% Benzene spill into water and 100% of it goes into solution with the water in question, it will quickly evaporate out of solution.  True, you have to wait, but if your water system is so critical that waiting a day or two for the Benzene or any other far more likely/potential chemical to disappear, you have MUCH BIGGER problems to deal with in your infrastructure.  Besides, Israel has NG offshore, not much oil(tiny bit) and it is far from shore.  Which means it has ample time to evaporate. 

The real world, instead of people in an ivory tower with a PH'd plaque on their wall, also can figure out that all those massive desalination plants providing ~1/3 going towards 1/2 of all of Israels/West Banks/Jordan's/Gaza water require a thing called POWER.  Power does not magically appear via magic.  These things called Natural Gas Turbines turn NG into electricity which then makes desalinated water.  Now maybe Israel can create the first truly sun powered desalination plant that is economical.   So far, in the real world, such a piece of infrastructure does not exist.  Several Billion people around the world are looking forward to such an invention. 

Hrmnm, Israel now has NG/oil to power said turbines for power/desalination instead of begging someone else for oil/NG and then praying it is not cut off when some Mullah needs a sock puppet to bash at a rally or the USA changes presidents. 

Your truly: Hard Brutal Reality. 

 

[Douglas Buckland + 6,308]

Damn! I actually agree with footeab on something!😂

[Donald Schaefer 0]

Israel is at a crossing point on the future of its national security -- it must decide which to put first; energy or potable water. I have argued in my article  “Water, Trump, and Israel’s National Security” at https://besacenter.org/mideast-security-and-policy-studies/water-israel-national-security/ that Israel must put access to potable water at the forefront of its security goals, for without sustainable access to drinkable water Israel as a nation will not survive. The basic issue is the currents that flow in the Mediterranean -- they tend to go around Egypt then on to Israel and circulate off the coast of Israel (see my attached PowerPoint presentation). The problem is that if there is an oil spill -- as it seems likely given the sheer volume of drilling that is scheduled to take place -- then the oil will come off the coast of Israel and at some point large volumes of it will sink to the seabed where the intake areas for the desalination plants that are so critical to Israel's existence exist -- thereby shutting them down. Another worry of mine -- as illustrated in my presentation -- is the possibility of using hydraulic fracturing in the Golan Heights. The problem is the failure rate of the cement and the likelihood of a catastrophic spill and/or contamination of the aquifer and other water sources. The issue here is that the water flows from the Golan Heights to the Sea of Galilee and from there through the National Water Carrier and the Jordan River throughout much of Israel and the West Bank. Such contamination would forever alter the access to water in Israel that can be used to drink, farm, and other uses -- perhaps bringing the future of Israel to a halt, as without sustainable levels of access to potable water Israel as a nation may not exist in the future. Therefore, as I argue in my article, Israel must put access to potable water at the forefront of its national security goals. Please pass along my article and its link as well as the attached presentation, as the future of Israel matters! Best wishes, Dr. Schaefer

SchaeferDDA-Water Trump and Israel's National Security.pdf

[Boat + 1,324]

If your worried about the lack of water in Israel consider giving  incentives for not having children and ending immigration. You cannot keep growing demand and expect resource depletion to improve. 
Israel went from a huge energy importer to a probable energy exporter thanks to nat gas finds. Desalination using nat gas from drilling off its coast seems to me a no brainer.

As an aside this is a great time to replace coal energy with nat gas and improve the air as well.

[Orioncap 0]

Not worried about lack of water in Israel. New technology is on the way! See link below:

https://www.ways2gogreenblog.com/2019/11/12/can-water-be-cost-effectively-produced-from-air/

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,192]

5 hours ago, Orioncap said:

Not worried about lack of water in Israel. New technology is on the way! See link below:

https://www.ways2gogreenblog.com/2019/11/12/can-water-be-cost-effectively-produced-from-air/

Dream on.  High humidity is required.  Deserts do not have high humidity.  SO, will not work other than... poorly at best.  Deserts do have high temperatures and why all such systems use salt water spray to convert salt water to salt and water.  How you manage both after the fact is where the rubber meets the road. 

[Marcin + 519]

Nuclear power is best for large desalination plants. Each of the countries: Israel, Saudi Arabia, UAE need them for this purpose.

[Boat + 1,324]

In the last 5 years Israel has been attacked with over 20,000 missiles. Not sure a nuke plant is the way to go.

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,192]

1 hour ago, Boat said:

In the last 5 years Israel has been attacked with over 20,000 missiles. Not sure a nuke plant is the way to go.

Well, no.  Attacked by several thousand?  Yes.  20k?  No.  Not even the rock throwing asshole children taught by their parents to be assholes have thrown that many rocks at the Jews in the West bank. 

[Donald Schaefer 0]

The basic issue here is for Israel to maintain access to sustainable levels of potable, e.g., drinkable, water. Currently, Israel gets over 70 percent of its drinkable water from its desalination plants that rely heavily on water from the Mediterranean Sea (though some of it comes from ground water that is saline in nature). With the continued rise in oil exploration in the Mediterranean Sea, there is a strong likelihood of an oil spill and/or discharge of oil off of or near Israel's coastline. The Achilles heel for Israel's desalination plants in regards to its oil exportation are the currents that flow near Israel (see slides 20 -22 of my presentation). Should there be an oil spill (as explained in my article) all it take is a small amount of oil to get into the intake areas of the pipes that feed the desalination plants to shut them down, and make them -- for all practicable purposes -- unusable. Much like the Gulf of Mexico, however, the basic discharge from the oil drilling and extraction may be enough to hinder these desalination plants from working because of the small amount of oil that may be discharged and get into the intake pipes for the desalination plants. Given the sheer volume of water and percentage of its use from the desalination plants, the stoppage of these plants or the limited use of them could forever cripple the future of Israel. Please take a few minutes or so and read my presentation and article, and realize that Israel must put access to potable water at the forefront of its national security goals in order to survive as a nation. Please pass along my article and its link -- as the future of Israel matters! Best wishes, Dr. Schaefer

SchaeferDDA-Water Trump and Israel's National Security.pdf

[Old-Ruffneck + 1,246]

Quote

42 minutes ago, Donald Schaefer said:

Much like the Gulf of Mexico, however, the basic discharge from the oil drilling and extraction may be enough to hinder these desalination plants from working because of the small amount of oil that may be discharged and get into the intake pipes for the desalination plants.

 

More oil seeps naturally in the Gulf of Mexico because of the pressures and "tar blobs" occur. I have a solution you may not like but 2 new Nuke reactors built underground to hinder small missiles or drill baby drill. Do a google satellite and look at the land, they irrigate a lot so the Israelis are kinda stuck in a no win situation.  Or line up 20 D-11's and scrape Gaza and make a holding pond.