Hydrostrategic Decisionmaking and the Arab ... - Yale University

WOLF 247water Diversion Plan to prevent the Jordan headwaters from reachingIsrael. The plan was to divert the Hasbani into the Litani inLebanon and the Banias into the Yarmuk where it would be impoundedfor Jordan and Syria by a dam at Mukheiba. The measurewould divert up to 125 MCM/y, thereby cutting by 35% the installedcapacity of the Israeli Carrier and increasing the salinity in the Sea ofGalilee by ~60 ppm (Unpublished memorandum, U.S. CentralIntelligence Agency, May 1962). In March, May, and August of1965, Israeli tanks attacked the diversion works in Syria. The finalincident, which involved both Israeli tanks and aircraft on July 14,1966, stopped Syrian construction.These events set off what has been called “a prolonged chainreaction of border violence that linked directly to the events that ledto the (June 1967) war” (Safran, cited in Cooley 1984).Boundaries Following the 1967 WarThe boundaries following the 1967 war, determined by an unsignedcease-fire agreement, have generally held until very recently.The boundary between Israel and Lebanon, which was not involvedin the war, remained the international boundary of 1923; theboundary between Israel and Syria extended well beyond the Armisticeline and demilitarized zones of 1949 to include the plateau ofthe Golan Heights as far as Quneitra 9 ; the boundary with Jordanreturned past the Green Line of 1949 to the 1922 British Mandatedivision between Palestine and Transjordan along the Jordan River.In addition to the territorial gains and improvements ingeostrategic positioning which Israel achieved in the war, it alsoimproved its hydrostrategic position. With the Golan Heights, itnow held two of the three northern headwaters as well as highground over much of the Yarmuk, together making the Arab HeadwatersDiversion impossible. The West Bank provided riparianaccess to the entire length of the Jordan River and also overlay amajor aquifer system which Israel had been tapping into from its sideof the Green Line since 1955 (Garbell 1965). Jordan had endeavoredto transport 70-150 MCM/y from the Yarmuk River to the West Bank,but given the results of the war, its plans were abandoned.9There was some change along the Israel-Syria border as a consequence of the 1974war. During that war, Syrian forces crossedwestward past Quneitra but did notdescend from the Golan Heights. Althoughthe Israeli counter-attack extended eastagain across Quneitra, the town itself wasreturned to Syria following a 1974Disengagement Agreement (Hareven1977; Sachar 1979).THE WAR OF 1982In 1982, Israel mounted its second operation against the PalestinianLiberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon. Its first offensive,named “Operation Litani,” was conducted four years earlier. Then,Israel had stopped its advance at the Litani River and had turnedover portions of southern Lebanon to the South Lebanon Army(SLA) under the command of Major Sa’ad Haddad. HaddadYALE F&ES BULLETIN