Dore Gold on the Strategic Importance of the Nile River and the Politics of the Red Sea
The Tikvah Podcast
Tikvah
4.6 • 620 Ratings
🗓️ 7 January 2021
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the water-scarce Middle East, water that can be used for drinking and agriculture is of premium importance. The entire ancient civilization of imperial Egypt grew up around the Nile River and its basin, and much of the east Africa still depends on it. Although Israel has made amazing advances in hydrotechnology, it too must treat water as a scarce resource, and that makes the politics of the Nile, along with the policing of the Red Sea, a question of real strategic significance to the Jewish state and the regional order of the Middle East.
In this week’s podcast, Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver is joined by Dore Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Israel’s former ambassador to the United Nations, to discuss the strategic importance of the Nile River, the policing of the Red Sea, and what they mean for Israel and the regional order of the Middle East.
Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In the water scarce Middle East, water that can be used for drinking and agriculture is of premium importance. |
| 0:15.0 | The entire ancient civilization of Imperial Egypt grew up around the Nile River and its basin, and what was true of antiquity is no less true of the contemporary Middle East. |
| 0:24.6 | The countries through which the Nile runs all depend on it for agriculture and much else. |
| 0:29.6 | Now, Israel has made amazing advances in hydro technology, including desalinization technology. |
| 0:35.6 | Still, water is a scarce resource, and the politics of the |
| 0:39.2 | Nile, along with the policing of the Red Sea, is of real strategic significance to Israel and the |
| 0:44.5 | regional order of the Middle East. Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. Joining |
| 0:50.0 | me this week to discuss the Nile River is Dory Gold, president of the Jerusalem Center for Public |
| 0:55.7 | Affairs, formerly the Director General of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and for several |
| 1:00.5 | years, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations in New York. |
| 1:04.6 | This is one of our shorter podcast episodes, and it opens up a number of very large questions. |
| 1:10.4 | Perhaps at a different point in the |
| 1:11.5 | future, we'll be able to pursue them. When you're listening, do me a favor. Pull up on your screen, |
| 1:16.1 | either on your computer or your phone, a map of the Nile River. Look at the countries that the Nile |
| 1:22.2 | winds through, not only Egypt, but Sudan and South Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi, |
| 1:31.1 | and also pull up a map of the Red Sea so that you can see the nations that border it. |
| 1:36.1 | Across from Egypt, Sudan, Eritrea, and Djibouti, you'll find Saudi Arabia and Yemen. |
| 1:42.1 | Israel, of course, accesses the Red Sea through the port city of |
| 1:45.7 | Alat, which sits on the Gulf of Akaba. If you enjoy this conversation, you can subscribe to |
| 1:50.8 | the Tikva podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, and Spotify. I hope you'll leave us a five-star |
| 1:56.2 | review to help us grow this community of ideas. I welcome your feedback on this or any of our other podcast |
| 2:02.2 | episodes at podcast at tikfafund.org. And of course, if you want to learn more about our work at |
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