And it did nothing to make up Israel's accumulated water shortfall. So that line has now been pushed down, to minus 214 meters. Water Commissioner Shimon Tal, charts a parched course through the summer. Palestinians agreed that only few refugees would return Oslo peace accords architect Yossi Beilin, the former justice minister, says the Palestinians agreed, at the Taba talks in January, that a solution of the Palestinian refugee problem would not upset the current demographic balance in Israel, with the overwhelming majority of refugees coming to an independent Palestine. Amikam Nachmani, water expert Israel has endured its third successive year of drought, with water levels dangerously low in Lake Kinneret, the country's main reservoir.
Desalination plants are only on the drawing board.
The head of the Mekorot water company has warned that Israel may not be able to supply the Palestinians with necessary water. And there's an annual obligation to the Jordanians to meet. In mid-March, Lebanon stepped up work on a new pumping station, just across the border, to draw water from the Hatzbani River. Infrastructure Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the move intolerable, and hard-line MK Michael Kleiner demanded the station be bombed forthwith. The Report asked water expert Amikam Nachmani, a senior research associate at Bar- Ilan Universty's BESA Center, how dangerous the crisis is.