Much can be said about the shadow war between Israel and Iran that is taking place at sea, especially against the backdrop of the maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon. These issues seem to be taking center stage recently, as the security of the waterways has become turbulent.
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In the 1950s and 1960s, the Arab world, led by Syria, sought to sabotage the National Water Carrier project to disrupt Israel's water supply. The tensions over the issue were one of the triggers for the 1967 Six-Day War. Always imperative, water was essential for young Israel to ensure its existence and its then-agriculture-based economy. Now, Israel is a technological power that desalinates seawater and provides not only its own needs but also the demand for water from its neighbor, Jordan.
And so, what was once a struggle for water between Arabs and Jews is now the struggle on water.
First is the maritime border dispute between Israel and Lebanon. A resolution of it will allow Lebanon to follow Israel's lead and tap into the natural gas reservoirs off Beirut's shores, but it Lebanon, as always, petty politics prevents any progress in the negotiations with Israel.
That could soon change. Recently, the Lebanese people have learned that Syria has licensed Russian exploration companies to search for this valuable resource off its shores – and off the Lebanese coastline as well.
While every little disagreement with Israel is seen by Beirut as a trigger for war, it dares not to stand up to Damascus. Syria, for its part, doesn't think much of Lebanon, which is effectively ruled by Hezbollah that, much like Syria, answers to Iran.
Iran and Israel are also engaged is a struggle about waterways. It began with attacks that foreign media reports attributed to Israel against Iranian tankers violating international embargo by delivering oil to Syria, thus feeling the regime's war against its own people.
Iran's efforts to establish a maritime foothold on Syrian's shores is equally disturbing as it would allow it to deploy naval forces that would threaten Israel's territorial waters.
The Israeli attacks provoked an Iranian retaliation against Israeli merchant ships, which in turn prompted an Israeli strike on a Revolutionary Guards ship. And so, one incident leads to another, although both sides are careful not to cross any red lines, in the way of actually sinking ships or harming the crews on board.
The ocean is thus becoming a major sphere, one key to Israel's national security and economic prosperity. But it is also a battlefield like any other – another conflict sphere where Israel must spare no effort to stop Iran's efforts to increase its regional foothold.
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