This is an amount equivalent to 30 per cent of her total imports in 1952. Reparations will take the form initially of oil products, agricultural implements, scientific and laboratory equipment, and heavy industrial machinery. A more permanent alleviation is being sought with the initiation of drilling operations in the badlands adjacent to the Dead Sea, calculated to bring forth oil from the desert. In a country whose very being is considered miraculous, there is a mystical approach to many mundane problems. The gushing of oil is confidently awaited by many who have beheld the successive miracles of survival and deliverance.
Water is almost as important as oil in the determination of Middle Eastern problems.
The control of sources, power, navigation, and communication is a highly disturbing factor in Arab-Israeli relations. The hallowed River Jordan has taken on new economic and political meaning. Israel requires control of the Jordan in order to further its ambitious program of irrigation in the southern desert, and to supply hydroelectric power in the north. The Arab states require commercial access to the Mediterranean somewhere between Beirut and Alexandria. Thus water in all its characteristics is a contentious element in the Middle Eastern struggle.