Water mill

A politician posing as a hydrologist is trying to solve the water problem in Israel and the Palestinian Authority

A long time ago I wrote a long and exhaustive article about the world's water problem. Among other things, I wrote that "we live in a country that is more than half desert and behave like we are sitting on the shore of a Swiss lake".

In other words, everyone who was and is engaged in solving the water problems in Israel is not implementing what is necessary for a real solution, but is engaged in politics and "fighting fires". In a framed article I will add and say that I understood petty politics.

Last week, dealing with the water problem in Israel began again. Many of the media came out with great fanfare and published the findings of the "German hydrologist" Clemens Messerschmidt, I did not see the findings in the language in which they were written and probably not written in Hebrew, so assuming that the concepts were translated correctly, I consider it my duty to respond.

The respected hydrologist writes that: "In Berlin and Paris, the annual amount of precipitation is less than that in Jerusalem and Ramallah." indeed? In my humble opinion, it is permissible to disagree with the statement. What's more, the "determination" is based on an average of 150 years. Has anyone heard about the weather changes in recent decades? Jerusalem is in the desert book, Ramallah is in a more rainy area. How and why does the hydrologist connect the two places? politics? Readers are invited to surf to check the annual rainfall amounts.

Another statement is that "the land is not a park". I learned that the climatic definition of a desert is an area that loses (through evaporation) more water than the amount of precipitation in it. So maybe the respected hydrologist knows differently, since according to any definition, south of the line connecting Jerusalem and Ashkelon - desert, Jerusalem itself sits in the desert, that is, in a semi-desert area.

Another statement is that "water is sold to Europe when flowers are sold". It is better for a hydrologist to check, the flowers are irrigated with stagnant water... on the other hand, in Europe (and Germany) they buy flowers from Kenya, flowers that grow near Lake Nayosha, a crop that causes environmental destruction and harm to the population.

Elsewhere he lumps the Middle East together with... Yemen. This is no proof of knowledge of geography, (but he is only a hydrologist). Later on a strange sentence "Karstic rock is a soluble rock that allows the rains to seep through". The readers will judge what is wrong. And more "in the West Bank and the Galilee, the western slopes are sheltered", the western ones? We learned that the southerners are parked, or maybe in Germany there is a different spirit rose? Later we are informed that "people in Germany have learned to save water", will the hydrologist curse the amounts of rain as part of the saving?

Another delusional statement, "most of the cultivated area today was cultivated long before 1948 by Palestinians", mister hydrologist, Palestinians? before 1948? Who knows such a being? Maybe he refers to biblical Israel? How does the aforementioned "wisdom" sit with all the cultivated areas south of the Jerusalem-Ashkelon line, the desert areas? Oh yes, with him the desert ends in Beer-Sheva... south... yuk. And yet he comes to Sde Boker and also to Yotveta but does not know the difference between cacti and date palms, peaches, grapes or pomelas? (He's just a hydrologist).

When it comes to his reference to the Golan, to Lebanon, to the Yarmouch and Hatzbani waters, the arrow comes out of the bag and the face of the hydrologist is revealed as a politician with a clear trend, so out of respect, he will write his research as a political proposal, not a hydrological one. Because the many vanities are not suitable for a professional.

And so a politician disguised as a hydrologist continues to defame everything he was able to get to know during his stay in the area. The reference that the Palestinians see the situation differently from the Israelis gives another rough clue to the starting point of the (disrespected) hydrologist, and based on this it is advisable to refer to all his words. If he does advise development organizations, he had better not have his advice accepted as "Torah from Messerschmidt".

It is everyone's right to suggest that "Israel is oppressing the Palestinians, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria and withholding water from them", only that he should do so under the hat of a politician, not a scientist, since a scientist/hydrologist is not allowed to distort facts.

A hydrologist, a man of exact sciences must be precise with the data and conclusions, when I continued reading I did understand that the entire study is based on a political opinion, politicians are allowed to publish nonsense and delusions, so that all the inaccuracies can be attributed to the politician Clemens Messerschmidt, this is in order not to harm a respected and important scientific branch - hydrology.

It is indeed true, the use of water in the country is wasteful on a scandalous level, the German hydrologist is showing signs and examples of the scandal of the waste and for that he should be thanked. But between the scandal of the waste of water and the scattering of assertions that border on vanity when most of them stem (probably) from a political position, and some from abysmal ignorance. There is a big difference between illusory determinations and conversion truth.