Without the Suez Canal …

A giant ship ran aground, the engine of global commerce choked. Without too much explanation, one can imagine the ‘phobia’ nature of the Suez Canal.
However, the Ever Given ship’s trauma raises a question: If such an unexpected incident happened again, could the world still have to wait for a successful rescue operation?

West Bank, and… Arctic Ocean One thing is easy to see: When the Egyptian dredgers devote themselves to “working day and night” to bring that 400m long and 220,000-ton ship back into the ocean, they don’t just forget to sleep. because the Suez Canal is one of the country’s greatest pride, not only because there is $ 9 billion of cargo stuck every day, but because the circulation of boats on the Suez Canal is closely related. to their own piece of rice. As Eslam Negm – an Egyptian sailor involved in dredging and rescue – shared: “We – that is the majority of Egyptians – live off this canal”. From there, no need for accurate data, anyone can imagine the huge profits that this artery maritime route brings. And therefore, it should not be surprising, given the immediate alternatives to the Suez Canal (or at least the worst case scenario) proposed in the vehicles. international mass news. First is Israel. According to The Arab Weekly on March 30, 2021, the congestion of the Suez Canal prompted discussion of alternatives to the Suez Canal – including Israel’s Ben Gurion Canal project linking the Red Sea. with the Mediterranean (also known as the Israel Canal) – come alive. The Israelis see this route as a competitor to the Suez Canal. Tel Aviv intends to turn the Israeli canal into a multifaceted project, such as building small towns, hotels, restaurants and nightclubs around the waterway. Outline of the Israeli canal project. Before that, on March 25, Business Insider (USA) announced the content of a secret memo written in 1963, which was declassified in 1996. Accordingly, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory of America used to study a project using nuclear explosions to dig a 160-mile (257 km) canal across the Negev desert in Israel, connecting the Mediterranean with the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea (Red Sea). Historian Alex Wellerstein – who also mentioned that profile on his personal social networking site Twitter – thinks this is a model option. However, in 1967, when the Arab-Israeli war broke out, the Suez Canal had to be closed for eight years, no one said anything about the Israeli canal. That is not difficult to understand, because in the 60s of the last century, trade activities as well as the volume of goods and especially the interdependence of all factors are not rich and diverse. form, development, complexity … as present – 21st century. The problem is: Because of the implications of nuclear radiation, there is no guarantee that neighboring (and still skeptical or hostile) Muslim Arab countries will allow Israel to redeploy the mining project. Ben Gurion channel. Meanwhile, when 380 ships were waiting at the Suez Canal, Russia announced: Bringing the project of the Northern maritime route along the North North Ocean connecting the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and committed Russia will ensure the safety of this new traffic route, as well as ensure that transportation costs will be cheaper. This sea route shortens 40% of the journey from China to Egypt to Europe, and the journey time is less than 15 days. Due to climate change, the amount of floating ice on the above line is less and less, the travel will be easier and easier. The Russian side pledged to let the icebreaker come to save any merchant who got caught in the ice on the way. Russia alone plans to use this maritime route to export its oil and gas. Those are the inevitable movements stemming from the fact, when everyone has seen how vulnerable the modern global supply chain is. That fact makes any country have conditions to prepare a backup plan, at the same time looking for opportunities to startle on the logistic “piece of cake”. Eternal aura However, we can believe that every Suez Canal project may not be of reference value, but will never achieve its goal of completely replacing the 193.3 long sea journey. km, connecting the Hong Hai with the Mediterranean. Just as the Panama Canal passing through Central America connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific, history and reality give the Suez Canal an incomparable position, by any competitor. Compared with the northern maritime route that Russia is planning to deploy, the absolute advantage of the Suez Canal is not not afraid of freezing in winter, but … near the “oil navel” of the planet. The position on the European – Asia – African junction of the Suez Canal is also extremely important, when North Africa – Middle East has never been a “hot spot”, never a place in the Middle East. The world’s leading power mind competes for influence on the global geopolitical map. Above all, the Mediterranean is the most important commercial center (if not the most important commercial center) of humankind since ancient times, also the site of a series of ancient civilizations. . 19,000 ships pass through the Suez Canal each year Israel may still proceed with the digging of the Ben Gurion Canal. However, “human peace” will be the biggest obstacle facing the Jewish state. On March 29, when Egyptian President El Sisi announced: “Egypt has succeeded in ending the crisis of the ship stranded in the Suez Canal, and bringing everything back to normal. This is all about it.” the world is reassured about the transportation of goods and their needs through this lifeline “, it can be said that he has made all the friendly Muslim Arab states reassured to” ignore them. “with every other alternative, especially the idea of ​​using another canal to benefit Israel. Old habits and relationships, whatever you say, always play a core role, even in terms of interests. Of course, Egypt would have to do much better than its part, to make sure as much as possible that an incident like the Ever Given ship ran aground – that is, the global supply chain was interrupted by a very windy night. But, of course, the era when famous maritime restaurants such as Vasco da Gama, Bartholomeus Diaz or Ferdinand Magenllan had to go around the Cape of Good Hope in the southern end of Africa to reach India was also far in the past. . Mankind will not return to those days, but it is not necessary to have another way, after more than 100 years familiar with the Suez winds … * Every year, the Suez Canal brings Egypt an average profit of about $ 6 billion, with about 19,000 ships passing, carrying goods equivalent to 10% of the total global trade turnover. In 2020, under the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and in the paralysis of the global trade machine, this figure will still reach USD 5.61 billion. * Since digging canals by traditional methods will be extremely expensive, the Americans are expected to use the Peaceful Nuclear Explosions (Pneums) method. This is a viable option, because this nearly 160-mile canal, 130 miles of uninhabited desert, could have nuclear detonation. According to calculations, to dig each mile of the canal, it is necessary to detonate 4 nuclear devices (temporarily called the atomic bomb) of the size of 2 million tons of TNT. So a total of 520 atomic bombs or 1.04 billion tons of TNT need to be detonated to dig this canal.