PowerSwitch

What will happen in Israel post peak/post carbon?

Demographically the Arabs will be more than the Jews. What will the IDF do when they have no Petrol for Helicopters, Tanks, Jeeps, F18's??

Will the playing feild be leveled? Will a new violent intifada take place with every jew fighting man to man against Arab for viable arable land. Will the young Arabs who were not allowed to live on land confiscated from them, turn to violence and the GUN to reclaim what they see as theres stolen from there parents in 1967?

Your thoughts?

they will use nukes ...

That would be a bit stupid, since Israel is only about 7 miles wide from green line to med coast, they would be nukeing themselves...............

Drop a nuke on gaza and Tel Aviv is a goner, Drop a nuke on any west bank village and Jerusalem is also not inhabitable for about 200 years.

I don't think Gaza would be the problem, it's the other countries, and they'd quite happily nuke them if there was no alternative remaining. They had nuclear weapons on standby in the first war on Iraq apparently, ready to use if a scud landed on Tel Aviv with a chemical or biological warhead. Why do you think the US gave them all those free Patriot missles? They didn't want Israel to step in as it would have broken up their coalition with Arab nations, but they knew the Israeli govt needed to be able to show it was doing something to stop the scuds...

There main protagonists will be a very large youthful palestinian population,

not the other countries, those other countries will have enough problems themselves, egypt has a population of about 70 million, they will be up to ther eyes in the shit and so will Jordan, Iraq? Iran? They will never attack israel, that would be MAD mutuily assured destruction.....

All those young Palestinians that saw wonton Israeli aggresion with tanks and helicopters will be jumping for joy when they know that only a rifle stands between them and the village there great grandfather was expelled from in 1967?

THis part of the world gonna be real ugly in a few years or so.....

Perhaps that's why they're building that wall.

In the first instance I'd expect Israel to look at growing sufficient quantities of biodiesel to maintain military supremacy.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a state sponsored redoubling of efforts to fulfil David Ben Gurion's vision of making the desert bloom; they have plenty of unused land in the Negev - the main problem they'd face would be powering desalination plants and pumping stations to get the water there from the Med. While they already have nuclear capability, they'd be sensible to avoid building a reactor for security reasons. Geographically they're well placed for solar power - if they can invest on a sufficient scale.

when you see this (the palestinian territory is represented in green in 1946, 1947, 1948-1967 and 2005), you fear the worst ... but you should expect such things from this pro palestinian website. I don't want to start a polemic here.

I never got the impression that this was a pro palestinian website, i thought the site was designed to discuss PO and energy issues.

I was simply pointing out, or trying to point out, that Israel needs to seek a two state solution or in 30 years or so, we will see the third migration of Israeli jews dispersed around the world, because the odds are stacked against a viable jewish state in a post carbon world?

sorry smiffy, I was not talking about powerswitch!! but the website the picture comes from!

again, sorry for the confusion!

I've often argued that Israel needs to go over the top to placate the surrounding countries and the Palestinians as soon as possible - i.e. now. This is a necessity whether you think they have a moral obligation to do this or not. It is also a necessity that they go further than what is considered the minimum, they need to go ott.

The reason being that the American public will soon pull the plug on what is essentially a state purely viable because of US subsidies when the big squeeze on their economy bites.

For the sake of the Israelis, the Palestinians, the surrounding countries and the I dare say the rest of the world.

newmac wrote:I've often argued that Israel needs to go over the top to placate the surrounding countries and the Palestinians as soon as possible - i.e. now. This is a necessity whether you think they have a moral obligation to do this or not. It is also a necessity that they go further than what is considered the minimum, they need to go ott.

The reason being that the American public will soon pull the plug on what is essentially a state purely viable because of US subsidies when the big squeeze on their economy bites.

For the sake of the Israelis, the Palestinians, the surrounding countries and the I dare say the rest of the world.

I wouldn't hold your breath; even if Amir Pertez were to win in March, the kind of concessions that would be necessary to bring about such a scenario would be political suicide (literal suicide if Yitzhak Rabin's experience is anything to go by).

I know it isn't going to happen. The potential and likely consequences are truly terrible.

I'd argue that Rabin's overtures can hardly be described as concessions - what is needed is not even real concessions - it's wholesale gifts without compromise.

The choice is pretty stark - political suicide (and potential homicide) or probable national suicide. As you say - FAT CHANCE.

Indeed. It will undoubtedly get very, very nasty over there. "Not on my watch" is probably the most any Israeli Prime Minister can afford to hope for in a PO context.

I plan to visit the West Bank for my next holiday in order to try and sort the news rubbish from the truth.

Good luck.