[imagesource:wikipedia]
Israel has an ambitious plan afoot to construct a huge 260-kilometre canal that would bypass the Suez Canal and challenge Egypt’s monopoly of the Europe-to-Asia shipping route.
The tentatively named Ben-Gurion Canal will traverse the Negev Desert and the south end of the Gulf of Aqaba and connect the Red Sea to the Mediterranean.
It’s going to be a pricey project, with an estimated cost of about £77 billion (we ran out of zeros converting it to ZAR, so just go with it).
The proposed canal would begin at the Israeli port city of Eilat on the Red Sea, cross the Jordanian border, flow through the Arabah Valley and enter the Dead Sea before heading northward around the Gaza Strip, eventually reaching the Mediterranean.
The canals’ dimensions would dwarf the deepest parts of the Suez Canal by 10 metres, ensuring the smooth passage of the world’s largest ships, which measure up to 110 metres in width and 300 in length. The canal’s walls would also be composed of rock rather than sand, which would require less maintenance.
Those keen on the project believe that the canal would earn at least £7.7 billion (R179 billion) in yearly trade income while also serving as a blow to China’s expanding economic ambitions with their Belt and Road Initiative.
Besides the challenges of digging a massive ditch through the desert, sceptics are also pointing to the escalation in tensions in the region as a major obstacle. By ‘escalation in tensions’, they obviously refer to Israel’s ongoing war with almost all their neighbours. Indeed, building a 250-kilometre canal whilst bombing Gaza to dust and poking a stick at Iran is going to be a mammoth and dangerous task.
Israel’s desire to ‘build our own’ becomes clearer when you look to history and Egypt’s blocking of their ships from the Suez Canal from 1948 to 1950. The decades-ago move severely affected its ability to trade with East Africa and Asia, and all but stopped it from importing oil from the Gulf region.
There have also been periods when the canal was closed to all international shipping, including for eight years following the start of the Six-Day War, which was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab states, including Egypt.
The Israeli plan to remove the need for their ships to use the Suez Canal and the Straits of Tiran doesn’t exactly scream olive branch, but some optimists believe the canal could lead to better cooperation and peace in the region. According to several, a mutually agreeable solution between Palestine and Israel could mean the canal, which borders both territories, could ‘foster economic interdependence’.
Ja, not so sure about that. Israel doesn’t seem to be in the business of sharing with neighbours these days, and a 250-kilometre mega project in an area with countless militant groups and rockets flying about is going to be a tough one.