Who cares if it rains in Spain?

It's 20 degrees Celsius today – and sunny. And heaven forbid that you mention that in positive tones on the streets of Israel. I love this weather; to me it is nirvana. But the truth is that Israel is in the middle of a drought. A really big drought -- a drought of biblical proportions!! And this is very bad.

This never happens in Canada because even in years when there isn't a lot of rain, the snow is very reliable. It falls, and falls, and then falls some more. Ratchet the temperature up a few degrees and inevitably that snow turns first to dirty, messy slush, and then to good old general wet stuff. Drought is not a word on the average Canadian's tongue. (I better check the situation in Saskatchewan before I speak on behalf of all of Canada.)

But in Israel, drought spells trouble. First it means that we might have to buy more fresh water from Turkey and right now that is the last thing we want to do. When Turkey was a decent, half-friendly neighbour it didn't hurt so much. But now, in the midst of Turkey's national We-Hate-Israel campaign, who the heck wants to do business with them?

Of course lots of Israelis aren't helping the situation either. Take my next door neighbours. I think they must be getting a kick-back from Turkey because they are single-handedly wasting as much water as they can. Drives my husband nuts. They water their walkway (because G-d forbid they should have a dirty walkway) and then as far as I can tell, they just turn their hose on for the fun of it – or perhaps because they know it makes us crazy.

I want the Israeli government to implement a Use and Abuse Law. If you use less than your allocation (which will be determined by some lazy bureaucrat in the Ministry of Something or Other), you get money back on your monthly water bill. And if you surpass your quota, then you pay a big penalty.

Of course, none of this will fill the Kinneret (and for your Christians out there, that's the Sea of Galilee -- and now I am developing a theory on how Jesus actually walked on that water) with much needed water, but until the Heavens see fit to cooperate, it will make me feel like we are doing something.