Much of the discussion of recent flood damage in coastal cities is the responsibility of state authorities, who have not invested properly in infrastructure development. That's just part of the story. The main problem, and the same denial to the point of denial, stems from macro-level planning failure. This is not just a poor local planning of a local drainage system, but a total perceptual failure resulting from ignoring the geographical foundations of the Land of Israel.
Since the early days, not so many people have lived on the coastal plain, which, due to its location on the edge of the mountains, was subject to flooding and marshland. In the High Priest's prayer on Yom Kippur, he would pray for the people of Hasharon "that their graves should not be their homes." However, since the beginning of Zionism, most Jews have concentrated on the coastal plain. Between Netanya and Rishon Lezion, 60 percent of the Jews currently live in Israel.
In this narrow strip, filled with urban infrastructure and sealed with concrete and asphalt, the open spaces are shrinking. There was not enough open land left to absorb and suspend the sediment. The coastal ecosystem, which even without urban construction is inherently vulnerable to floods from the mountains, has lost balance and is out of control. The extensive construction east of Gush Dan - Modi'in, Elad and Rosh Ha'ayin - also directly affects the dimensions of the overpass, which unnaturally increase the flow of streams entering Gush Dan.
In these areas, which have been open areas since ancient times, a significant amount of precipitation has seeped into the groundwater. As construction expands, most of the water is transported in the drainage infrastructure to the streams in an amount that goes well beyond the natural capacity available. The same thing is happening in Beit Shemesh, which is being built into a city of 350,000 people.
By 2040, the National Planning Authority has ordered planning authorities to plan an additional 2.6 million apartments, all within the Green Line. This is an impossible violation of the national ecological balance. The failure lies at the heart of the National Outline Plan, which did not consider potential beyond the Green Line and ignored the fact that this is one ecological space that includes the precipitation and sewage coming down from the west coastal cities and flooding the coastal plain, requiring planning and treatment as a single system.
Restoring the balance requires a fundamental perceptual change: The Jerusalem District, which is required by the plan for the addition of 300,000 apartments, must direct most of the construction eastward, towards Mishor Adumim. The head of the eye, which is enlarged by 40,000 apartments, must be moved east towards Ariel. An up-to-date national outline plan is underway to build an eastbound avenue for the State of Israel, over the Jordan Valley, on the Arad Gilboa line, as a basic planning change that would save the Dan bloc from collapse.
Gen. (res.) Gershon Cohen is a research fellow at the Begin Sadat Center