In the Golan Heights, there is an unassuming aqueduct used for local irrigation. Not so long ago, however, this mundane structure was part of a much grander project, known as ‘Tapline,’ a 754 mile long Trans-Arabian pipeline to transport oil straight from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. When Tapline was constructed in 1947, the idea of creating a shortcut for transporting oil over land made economic sense. This was still true twenty years later, when, despite fierce animosity, Israel and the Arab states cooperated to keep the pipeline running after Israel captured part of the Golan in the 1967 war. But, with the arrival of oil supertankers, it became more economically attractive to load the oil in the Gulf and sail it straight to Western markets, instead of using Tapline. While the Tapline project may have been buried, the idea of building a pipeline through the Middle […]