Populating the Negev

Israel will face an influx of tens of millions of Median Jewish immigrants in the coming decade or two. Israel’s population will triple or quadruple and the question is where will the immigrants live? It would of course be possible to triple or quadruple the size of current cities but another option is to build new cities in the southern Negev desert. The new Israeli government’s apparent policy that further solar fields will be built in Jordan and Egypt rather than in the Negev indicates that the government may be eyeing mass development of the Negev for Median Jewish immigrants. Not only cities could be built in the Negev but many towns and villages as well. Bringing tens of millions of Median Jews to Israel is indeed an opportunity to populate the mostly uninhabited Negev desert. Furthermore, the new immigrants will need to eat and that will require devoting much of the Negev to agriculture.