Hey, what about make the Rift Valley a little wider where it meets the Red Sea?
This would be relavitely easy -- say, a few small conventional explosions -- and
would create an inland swamp where there is no desert. It merits looking into.
Of course, the main reason for much hardship in the region in not the desert
conditions, but the forms of government -- ususally very anti-freedom -- there.
Yours,
Daniel Ust