MidnightCall Magazine
News From Israel MagazineThe Red-Dead Canal Plan Alive Again
A group of Israeli and foreign businessmen and bankers are finally ready to build a $3 billion canal between the Red and Dead Seas, desalinating the water, producing hydroelectric power and yielding profits, clean water, jobs and potentially unprecedented regional cooperation. The project could create work for a million Israelis, Palestinians and Jordanians, draw eight million tourists a year to Israel, and produce a billion cubic meters of desalinated water. Jordan's King Abdullah and Saudi Prince Walid bin-Talal have already given their enthusiastic endorsement of the project, according to its initiators.The dramatic Valley of Peace initiative in the Arava was unveiled Thursday - the 60th anniversary of Israel's Independence on the Gregorian calendar - by 57-year-old Israeli billionaire Yitzhak Tshuva, owner of the El-Ad Group that includes Manhattan's Plaza Hotel and Delek, Israel's second-largest oil and gas company.
Tshuva, who sat with President Shimon Peres along with other leading business people, said that the 166-kilometer-long canal between Israel and Jordan would be only the beginning. The planned Valley of Peace through the Arava would be developed to include tens of billions of dollars worth of hotels (with 200,000 beds) and other tourist attractions, clean industry and one of the largest botanical gardens in the world - providing a million jobs. It would quadruple tourism to Israel from today's two million annual visitors, he said. The billion cubic meters of desalinated water it would yield would make the Arava green on both sides of the border, said the 57-year-old real estate and fuel tycoon as Peres smiled broadly. Greenhouses would raise winter fruits and vegetables and sell them in the region and abroad. "This is the only way to get out of the cycle of violence and the dead end in the area," continued Tshuva. Jobs and prosperity, he maintained, would moderate Arabs in the region and give them an alternative to violence and terror. "Peace will be made not by peace agreements but by making cooperation and goodwill among the peoples of the region. The Valley of Peace will provide a solution for generations to come." -Jerusalem Post, 16 May 2008, pg. 8These lofty declarations have not been put into practice yet, but the possibility seems real. Gigantic business operations can have an amazing effect on the population as a whole. Israel is already a leader in various fields of technology and the Red-Dead canal would certainly be considered a masterpiece.
As Bible readers, we must keep in mind that the world’s final power structure, based on politics, religion and merchandise, will be extremely successful. We read in Revelation 18:3: “For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.”
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