Agriculture in Israel developed to the degree that it is today , because it is/was a key part of the original Zionist dream. Reality further justified the focus early on, because without some sort of food security, their enemies could find a way to literally starve the nation.

Today such fears are utterly foolish, and the price of keeping the dream alive is far greater than the income it produces especially since the water that would be saved could be put to income producing industries that are far more profitable (like hi tech which needs water too).

The interconnected world economy ensures Israel would always be able to get food, and with the original justification for farming gone, there is really no rational reason to focus so much national energy and use so much national water to grow crops that can be bought elsewhere much cheaper, but are kept out thanks to import restrictions to ensure Israeli crops are profitable.

And really no matter how successful it is in doing so there is NO justification for growing cotton anywhere in the desert (that goes for Egypt too).

Yup, the founder of Friends of the Earth Middle East has built a water-sharing and education model that other countries and areas of conflict are copying. The founder of this organization Gidon Bromberg (look him up we have written about him many times) is an Israeli.