OTHER VIEWS

Truth Stranger Than Fiction

Jerusalem
uick. Name the most impor-
tant good news story in Israel
so far in 2003. I mean really
good news.
Not some cheerful human-interest
item. Not some isolated, local drama
with a happy ending. We're talking here
a major story with far-reaching positive
consequences for the entire nation; an
unexpected story free of security wor-
ries, political wrangling and diplomatic
fallout; a story that transcends Israel's
deep ideological, religious and econom-
ic divisions.
Stumped? Perfectly understandable.
Who associates good news with Israel
lately?
You might say we specialize in prob-
lems. You name it, we got it: continu-
ing Palestinian terrorist atrocities;
record unemployment and dire poverty;
a dysfunctional political system; an
economy in tatters and getting worse;
rampant labor unrest; a decimated
tourist industry; worsening regional
tensions; and to top it off, the country
is increasingly congested and polluted.
As if Israelis didn't have enough to
worry about, the army is on high alert
for fear the current war in Iraq may
lead Saddam Hussein to attack Israel,
possibly with chemical weapons.
Amid such adversity, the most posi-
tive development in recent months has
been largely overlooked. And yet it's a
rare storythat literally all,Israelis —

CI

Robert Sarner is a senior reporter-

LADIES

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editor on Israel's only English-language
daily TV show. Before moving to Israel
in 1990, he was a writer and magazine
editor in Paris and Toronto. His e-mail
address is rsarner@netvision.net.il

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JACOBY

frrom page 37

Islamic Jihad, Abbas told the Arab daily
al-Sharq al-Awsat on March 3, "We did-
n't talk about a break in the -armed
struggle ... It is our right to resist. The
intifada must continue and it is the right
of the Palestinian people to resist and
use all possible means." His only caveat
was that terrorism should be confined to
the disputed territories — Gaza, the
West Bank, and eastern Jerusalem. Such
is the nature of Abbas' "moderation."
At Camp David in 2000, Abbas was
among those who pressed Arafat to
reject Israel's comprehensive peace pro-
posal, notes political scientist Dan
Schueftan, a former adviser to Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Palestinians
should have no regrets about refusing
Israel's offer of 95 percent of the land,
Abbas has since said, "because 95 per-

is on course to break the
Jewish and Arab, secular and
record for the biggest rise in
religious, veteran Israelis and
the Kinneret in one season.
new immigrants, rich and poor,
"With all the melting snow
Ashkenazi and Sephardic, left
from
Mount Hermon and
wingers and right wingers, urban
perhaps more rain in the
dwellers and rural residents —
coming weeks, we're opti-
unanimously welcome.
mistic the Kinneret will go up
Still at a loss to guess what it
one more meter, which
ROBERT
is? Drum roll, please. The best
would be fantastic," Uri
news in Israel this year is that the
SARNER
Schor of the Water
main source of drinking water
Special
has been mostly replenished
Commentary Commissioner's Office said in
late March. "There's no doubt
thanks to a record rainfall over
that this has been a season of bountiful
the past three months. In a country
rainfall that has rescued the Kinneret
with only one major body of fresh
and, we hope, helped improve the
water — Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee)
severely depleted state of the coastal and
— and where it usually -only rains
mountain aquifers."
between October and April, this is
For the first time in 11 years, the
magnificent news.
Mekorot Water Company is channeling
By late fall, after years of severe
some of the fresh water it is pumping
drought, the Kinneret had reached a
dangerously low level, creating the most from the Kinneret into the coastal
aquifer. The level of this vital under-
severe water crisis in Israel's history.
ground reservoir had dropped seriously
Both the quantity and quality of the
country's water resources had deteriorat- in recent years and was facing the dan-
ger of becoming salivated.
ed dramatically. The receding Kinneret
Ironically, this comes just when the
had become a shadow of itself and in
the process became a disturbing symbol United Nations is warning that the
world is about to face a major water cri-
of the country's sad state of affairs.
As recently as December, hydrologists sis. According to a new study, published
at the World Water Forum in Japan
were lamenting the dearth of rain.
two weeks ago, the earth's water prob-
Meteorologists said there was little on
lem is already daunting and will get
the horizon in the new year that would
ease the water crisis substantially. But in even worse in the coming years. The
reasons: population growth, climatic
a near-miraculous turnaround this win-
change, pollution and mismanagement
ter, the skies opened repeatedly, with
of one of nature's most-vital resources.
torrential rains causing the Kinneret to
Although this winter's heavy rains are
rise more than four meters. And the
a
blessing,
their benefit may not last
good news is not over yet.
long. The Kinneret may be looking full
With more rain this month and the
again but it's only a matter of time
continuing strong flow into the lake
from the Jordan River and streams lead- before the country faces another water
problem. So much for the good news
ing down from the Golan. Heights, the
from Israel. ❑
lake will rise even further. Clearly, 2003

cent is not 100 percent." He insists not
only that Israel surrender every inch of
land occupied in self-defense in 1967 —
including the Old City of Jerusalem and
its Jewish holy sites — but also that mil-
lions of Palestinians be given an unlimit-
ed right of immigration into Israel prop-
er. Of course, that would spell the end
of the Jewish state — just what Fatah
and the PLO have sought for 40 years.
In the 1980s, Abbas wrote a book
suggesting that the Nazi Holocaust had
been wildly exaggerated. Zionist propa-
ganda had inflated the number of Jewish
murder victims to 6 million, he claimed
— the true figure might well be "only a
few hundred thousand." What's more,
he wrote, the Nazi slaughter had been
carried out with the help of Zionist
leaders, who colluded in persecuting
Europe's Jews in order to promote
Jewish emigration to Palestine. Whether

Abbas still believes these grotesqueries is
unclear.
But this much is very clear: An inflexi-
ble radical who supports terrorism is nei-
ther a moderate nor an advocate of peace
— even if he does speak good English
and wear well-tailored suits. A lifelong
accomplice of Yasser Arafat is not an
exemplar of democracy and tolerance. A
Palestinian Authority ruled by the same
aging terrorists who have ruled it from
the start — albeit with a slight shift of
powers and portfolios — is not a "new
and different Palestinian leadership."
As the Afghans deserved better
than Mullah Omar and his Taliban
thugs, as Iraqis deserve better than
Saddam and the Baathist SS, so the
Palestinians deserve better than
Arafat and Abbas. President Bush
Imas firm on that point last June.
This is no time to go wobbly.

❑