Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Several Middle Eastern countries have recorded historical temperature highs, as well as the lowest precipitation levels in decades. Israel was among the first to sound the alarm.
The Jewish state's agriculture is more dependent on the mercy of nature than its neighbors.
More dependent? Nonsense. Israelis invented drip irrigation among other innovations, and is a leader in wastewater reuse and water conservation in general. See a report in the subject from a few years ago at the bottom of this post. I don’t know enough to challenge Regnum’s claim that they are currently experiencing difficulties, but given that Syria’s 2011 civil war occurred during a prolonged, severe drought, Israel clearly handles such things better.
Local authorities predict a quick "total restructuring" of the region due to changing climate conditions. And at the same time, they are looking for ways not to fall out of the future "water race."
DRIED EARTH
The current drought is not the first in the history of Israel, but it is the most extensive. According to data cited by the head of the Israel Water Authority, Hezi Lifshitz, fresh water springs in the north of the country have dried up to critical levels, and the Banias River, which flows into the Jordan, has almost completely dried up.
Tel Aviv's existing alternative water sources (which in theory should have maintained the country's water balance for at least another decade) were insufficient to meet the growing demand. According to the official, the country was faced with a challenge "that it had not seen for at least a century."
Agriculture was among the first to react to the crisis: Israeli wheat and barley producers reported a drop in yields of up to 60% in some areas. Moreover, the introduction of irrigation limits provoked a sharp jump in prices for vegetables and fruits - some categories of goods have increased in price by almost 20% in three months.
And the forecast remains predominantly pessimistic: official Tel Aviv has not yet been able to harness the rising prices, nor has it been able to curb the discontent among farmers and settlers.
Moreover, in addition to extreme temperatures, the Israeli economy is also under pressure from other negative factors, such as the increasing frequency of forest fires,
…many started by firebug jihadis…
as well as the ongoing confrontation with Iran and its allies.
The latter, by the way, even manage to drive large Israeli enterprises into bankruptcy (and the history of the port of Eilat is the best confirmation of this), which does not inspire optimism in the authorities.
EVERYONE HAS PROBLEMS
However, it is not only Israel that suffers from the drying up of water resources. Many of its neighbors in the region are experiencing similar problems, especially those that share a border with the Jewish state.
Tolja so.
For example, Lebanon has been unable to cope with the consequences of the rapid decline in the Litani River for six months. Official Beirut was forced to stop the operation of key power plants on the river - Abdel Aal (completely), Arkuash and Helu (partially) - for a month and a half in March to avoid a critical drop in the water level.
However, already at the beginning of June, power plants had to be returned to their previous capacities due to the threat of rolling blackouts in Lebanese cities.
The situation has not been stabilized even by the end of July. Lake Qaraun, the largest reservoir on the Litani, is rapidly drying up, creating new security threats. If fires start in the area, there will be almost nothing to put them out with.
In Iraq, temperatures have broken records dating back to the 1990s, and a prolonged lack of rain has led to major adjustments to harvest forecasts. In addition to a significant (about 40%) reduction in wheat production, rice production has fallen to zero, damaging the country's food security.
There are problems with the population's access to drinking water. Some cities in the south of the country (for example, Sayyid-Dakhil), where temperature records have been broken, have been declared a local disaster zone.
And although the Iraqi government is trying to drown out the grumbling with positive news, such as reports of the discovery of fragments of the destroyed city of Zahiku (3,400 years old) in one of the dried-up reservoirs near Mosul, the population's discontent is growing.
In neighboring Syria, the drought is still far from the scale of the “terrible four years” (2007-2010), when extreme temperatures burned more than 60% of the country and caused unprecedented livestock losses.
And a civil war — see above.
However, the country’s economy, weakened by years of civil war and the recent regime change in Damascus, was not ready for the return of the elements.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that drought-induced crop failure threatens to starve at least 16 million Syrians, and that crop areas are expected to shrink by 10-15%.
The threat is particularly strong in the Druze Mountains region, where serious disagreements between local ethnic elites and the central government are already observed. Accordingly, the risk of "water riots" increases significantly.
Iran, at first glance, has suffered less than others, and the authorities have not reported any problems with the reduction of cultivated areas. Nevertheless, the country is facing the consequences of the worst drought in the last 60 years.
This is particularly noticeable in Tehran, where the water volume in the five largest reservoirs has dropped to 13% capacity, with some dams dry or on the verge of drying up. More than 40 cities, including the capital, have faced water rationing and prolonged interruptions.
The situation is further aggravated by the fact that part of the water supply infrastructure was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in June 2025 and did not return to design capacity in time for the peak of the drought.
Egypt and Jordan were the least affected by the elements; both countries have created an extensive system of water bodies (including desalination facilities), which helps them “stay afloat” even during periods of severe drought.
Wasn’t at least part of Jordan’s system built by Israel a few years ago?
In addition, the Egyptian and Jordanian territories are located far from the epicenters of the drought, which reduces the pressure on the ecosystem of these countries. Nevertheless, even they describe the current situation in the Middle East as “worrying” and are looking for ways to help their neighbors.
NEW GOLD
Meteorologists are inclined to believe that the current record drought is not a one-off event, and that countries in the region should prepare for more serious climate challenges. According to the most optimistic forecasts, precipitation in the Middle East is expected to decrease by an average of 12% by 2050, and by another 20-25% by 2100.
Models are always wrong but sometimes useful, ‘tis said.
The most effective way to protect your country from water shortages is to rapidly increase the capacity of desalination plants and wastewater treatment systems.
For example, by 2050, Israel will need to increase its water capacity by at least 53%, Iran and Lebanon by 60-65%, and Syria and Iraq by approximately 76%.
Of the three, only Israel is known as the Innovation Nation. What odds that Israel will rise to the challenge?
At the same time, the development of alternative water supply systems will require significant financial investments from Middle Eastern countries, and over a long period of time. Not all of them have the necessary resources.
Others even risk not even reaching the “finish line”: in Syria and Iraq, the population demands that the problem be solved “here and now” and does not yet have much faith in the prospects of the plans voiced by the governments.
In these countries, protest speeches are being heard with the same slogans as in 2011, when the “terrible four years” were replaced by the Arab Spring, and regimes in the Middle East began to fall one after another.
All of the above creates the risk of new coups in unstable countries, threatens to increase hunger and worsen economic indicators in Middle Eastern countries. And ultimately, the emergence of new hotbeds of tension near the Israeli borders.
Against this backdrop, Israeli "hawks" are calling on Tel Aviv to "act proactively" today, identifying potential "water treasures" (areas with the highest concentration of rivers and other water sources) and preparing for a possible imminent fight for them. And at the same time, for the protection of its own "desalinated wealth."
Few in Israel doubt that water will soon become the “new gold” for which they will have to fight – as well as that in the event of a hypothetical division, their country will be the first target for many. And therefore, calls to arm themselves in advance are no longer perceived as populism, but as a sober look into the future.
So no change on the armaments side of things compared to now. If it’s not one thing, it’s another
Related from 2022:
How Israel Used Innovation To Beat Its Water Crisis
[Israel21c] Israel is a desert, and water resources are scarce, but today it produces 20% more water than it needs. What can the world learn from Israel’s experience?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Ivan Markov
[REGNUM] The crew members of the Il-2 attack aircraft Pavel Smirnov and Yuldash Zhandarov, whose plane was shot down in an air battle on March 4, 1945, in the area of the current settlement of Kornevo in the Bagrationovsky District of the Kaliningrad Region, had already been found once.
The local press wrote about the ceremonial burial of the remains of both pilots in 1981, their names are immortalized on the Kornevo memorial. However, when in mid-July of this year, Kaliningrad searchers carried out work to raise the wreckage of the plane, it turned out that in fact the crew remained at the scene of the crash.
The work was carried out in a swampy area in conditions of heavy rains for a week, but was crowned with success - in the depths of the crater, not only parts were found that could be used to identify the aircraft, but also the pilot's awards. In order to collect the remains in the wet sticky soil, the searchers used the washing method - by the way, the order and medal were not lost.
That air battle is recorded in the combat log of the 136th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment. The document states that it was forced upon a group of 11 Il-2 attack aircraft and six Yak-9 fighters by a dozen German fighters with experienced pilots.
Despite fairly dense cloud cover (7-8 points), two groups of “flying tanks” flew to attack enemy artillery and manpower near the East Prussian settlement of Hermsdorf (today this is the settlement of Pogranichny in the Bagrationovsky district).
The groups were led by the most experienced Soviet pilots: the commander of the 1st squadron of the 136th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment, Guards Major Yakov Korovin, and his deputy, future Hero of the Soviet Union, Guards Senior Lieutenant Grigory Poluyanov.
Having approached the target, the attack aircraft were suddenly attacked by the Germans, who appeared from behind the clouds. According to the report, there were 12 enemy aircraft: six Messerschmitt-109 and the same number of Focke-Wulf-190.
They attacked from above and below at the same time, performing flips. It was obvious that the Nazis had dozens, if not hundreds, of air battles under their belts.
However, Korovin and Poluyanov had over a hundred combat sorties under their belts, and their wingmen also had good combat experience. The attack aircraft quickly managed to close the defensive circle, which allowed them to avoid significant losses. An exchange took place.
Having shot down one Fokker and one Messer, the groups lost two attack aircraft. In addition, one Soviet aircraft was set on fire, but managed to reach its own and make an emergency landing (the pilot and gunner, although injured, managed to reach their airfield on their own).
The head of the search team "Sovest" Ruslan Khisamov assures that the picture of the battle described in the documents has been almost completely confirmed on the ground, since to date in this area it has been possible to find not only the crash site of Smirnov and Zhandarov's plane, but also two German planes.
The Fokker was found not far from the excavation site, and the Messer was literally across the road from it. However, the work continues, as the second downed Il-2 of Guards Captain Khai Zagidullin, whose name is also immortalized on the Kornevsky memorial, has not yet been found.
"The problem is that we don't have any clear references to the area, " Khisamov explains. " Zagidullin's plane could have crashed in a forest or a field. We will continue the search."
As for the current discovery, according to the squad leader, excavations were carried out at the crash site back in 1980, when land reclamation workers discovered the wreckage of the attack aircraft in a swampy forest.
"Then, as we know, the pilots' documents were found, part of the remains of the air gunner Yuldash Zhandarov and his awards, " Khisamov explains. " We carried out more in-depth work, which allowed us to find the remains of Pavel Smirnov and his orders: Glory of the 3rd degree and the Red Banner. In addition, we raised a broken Berezina machine gun with the turret on which it was mounted, and a lot of serialized parts. All of this will be transferred to the Kaliningrad Historical and Art Museum."
The searchers' findings both delighted and surprised them.
The fact is that local residents reported the activity of black diggers, who, apparently, had previously managed to pull out an attack aircraft engine and other large parts from the swamp.
In addition, during Soviet times, metal parts of the aircraft that remained on the surface of the earth could be turned into scrap metal.
Thanks to the help of Kaliningrad historian Vasily Savchuk, newspaper articles from the early 1980s were found in which Anatoly Petrikin, a research fellow at the regional Historical and Art Museum (by the way, he was a participant in the assault on Königsberg), talks about how the plane was found.
On July 2, 1980, an article was published in Kaliningradskaya Pravda in which the author reported on the discovery of the remains of the pilots, their belongings, notebooks, field maps, documents and awards.
"The exact date of the air battle is unknown, " Petrikin wrote at the time. " But judging by the documents found, it could have been two months before the victory: the canteen coupons for March 9 were used, but for the following days they are intact."
Further searches and correspondence with fellow pilots and relatives of Pavel Smirnov suggested to Petrikin that his guess about the approximate date of the battle was incorrect. However, he established other details that greatly helped in the search.
In his newspaper reports, the searcher reported that the pilot graduated from the Balashov Military Aviation School of Pilots in the summer of 1944 and was accepted as a member of the Communist Party there.
Regarding the air gunner Zhandarov, it was reported that his date of birth was established from his Red Army book and Komsomol card (and in the text of the note he calls him Zhaldash Dzhandorov, since that is how he was written down on his card).
On January 22, 1981, Kaliningradskaya Pravda published a new article in which Petrikin reported new details.
By this time, Smirnov and Zhandarov's fellow soldiers responded to the news about the found plane. The first to write to Kaliningrad were Vladimir Andronov from Minsk and N. A. Sheloukhina (presumably Natalya Afanasyevna) from Krasnodar Krai, who served in the same 136th Guards Assault Aviation Regiment.
They sent the first detailed information about the dead.
"We saw off sixes, nines, and even several squadrons at once on combat missions and waited for them with excitement, counting the minutes... " the newspaper quoted Sheloukhina. " That's how it was on that memorable day of March 4, 1945, when Pasha Smirnov and Zholdash Dzhandorov did not return. We looked at the sky with hope, listened, but no, the crew did not return. And we knew nothing about its fate until the publication in Kaliningradskaya Pravda. But believe me, we always remembered and remember - about each one."
Petrikin then started a correspondence with Smirnov's relatives. He managed to get in touch with them, among other things, thanks to the deceased's documents: the identity card stated that the officer was born on December 19, 1922, in the village of Chernitsyno, Pereslavsky District, Yaroslavl Region. It turned out that the pilot was not married and had no direct descendants.
Pavel was the eldest brother in the family, and during the war years, funeral notices came not only for him, but also for his father.
By 1981, his 80-year-old mother and sister Evdokia remained in their homeland. By that time, his sister Galina lived in Aleksandrov in the Vladimir region. In addition, Pavel's brother Aleksandr lived in the village of Berendeyevo in the Pereslavl district of the Yaroslavl region (in May 1981, he came to the funeral ceremony, as reported by the local newspaper Kaliningradsky Komsomolets), and his second brother, Nikolai, lived in Volzhsky in the Volgograd region.
“In the summer of 1944, after finishing pilot school, Pavel came home on leave for ten days, and soon after, from the front, he wrote about his first battles,” Alexander Smirnov wrote to the museum worker, adding that his brother had wanted to become a pilot since childhood and had done everything he could to achieve this.
If by the beginning of the 80s the search immediately gave a good result, then after 45 years it has not yet been possible to find any of the relatives to pass on the awards of the young attack pilot. The head of the "Sovest" detachment said that in May 2015 a message was left on the Kaliningrad Internet portal by a distant relative of the pilot - Galina Kiseleva.
“Unfortunately, Smirnov’s brother P.I., who was present at the reburial on April 24, 1981, has already died and we do not know the exact burial site,” the woman wrote.
Since Galina did not leave any contact information, it was not possible to contact her.
Gennady Polubedov, a member of the "Sovest" squad from Pyatigorsk, is currently searching for other relatives. He told the Regnum news agency that Pavel's nephew lived in Volzhsky, but he died in April of this year. In addition, Polubedov established that another niece of the pilot lives in Pereslavl, but she has not yet responded to messages.
There was also hope for Petrikin's archive, part of which is kept in the Historical and Art Museum. However, the museum's fund custodians explained that there was only an archive there concerning the Heroes of the Soviet Union with whom the searcher corresponded.
It was not possible to establish whether the letters to Pavel Smirnov's family were preserved. So this is where the search ends for now, but one thing is certain: the remains of the Il-2 crew will be buried with honor, and the awards will be preserved and given to the family if they are found.
#1
...No matter how our nations view each other today, recovering the fallen is something I will always support and honor.
Been watching some excellent videos lately about a group of guys who do metal detecting around Berlin, and they uncover remains on a pretty regular basis. When they find them, they stop in their tracks and call the authorities...who have a fairly good sized department expressly for this sort of thing.
It's Kurt!
[Townhall] Apparently, the Gazans are starving, though you wouldn’t know it from the pictures of the Palestinian fatsos in the background of the kids with chronic wasting diseases that the Cecil B. DeMilles of Pallywood are trying to pass off as victims of Israeli meanness. The nerve of those Jews — it’s always the Jews, you know — for fighting back against a bunch of psychotic Marxist/jihadi freaks who initiated this war with a rape/killing spree and are now crying like little girls because they are righteously getting their behinds kicked. Israel should ignore the invertebrates and double down on defeating them.
We are solemnly informed by the moral illiterates of the left and its regime media adjuncts that we must care about Palestine’s children, though there is no Palestine, nor should there ever be. But it’s baffling why we are supposed to care more about Palestine’s children than the Palestinians do. The Palestinians care about them not at all — if they cared about them, they wouldn’t raise them into adult semi-human savages, nor would they start wars they can’t win. But of course, losing is their strategy — they want to lose so hard and so badly that the tofu-spined cowards of the West invert the moral paradigm and force the righteous retribution to stop and the rule of the terrorists to be preserved. It's not about "Palestinians", it's about Der Juden! If all the Jews disappeared from Israel tomorrow, the support for "Palestinian Cause" would disappear the next day.
We’re told this is an immoral argument for reasons that are never explained. It’s actually a strong argument that normal people understand and therefore must somehow be put off-limits. It’s so effective because it’s so obviously true that the Marxist/jihadi alliance must declare it unspeakable. It’s akin to someone accused of racism countering that some of his best friends are minorities. That’s a great argument that one is not racist, and therefore it’s an argument that cannot be made because it undermines the whole morally bankrupt premises of the accusations. It’s the same here. Their whole narrative strategy is based on the idea that Palestinians lack any kind of agency or ability to control the savage impulses of their seventh-century ideology, and the second you point out that they could end their pain in an instant, you utterly neutralize the Marxist/jihadi narrative.
It’s always amusing how they attempt to use the language of morality to try to get us to surrender to the forces of immoral Marxist/jihadi barbarism. It works on a lot of people, because a lot of people are stupid, but the greatest insult is not their epithets but that they think it might actually work on us. They must think we are as stupid as their supporters.
#3
Israeli-carry meets most of my CCW preferences on a daily basis. Situational awareness or anticipated elevated threat level changes that easily by chambernig a round. Having the weapon available, utterly safe and ready in mere seconds is adequate for my individual lifestyle. For each of those who carry it is a personal decision/
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
