Dateline Jerusalem — With all the news about the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel, it is a pleasure to learn that many states have cooperative agreements with Israel. They span trade and investment, education, economic development, solar and alternative energy and clean technologies, health and biotechnology, medicine, stem cell research, cyber security, water conservation and management, food and agricultural technologies, climate change, social entrepreneurship, arts and culture, and various research and technology activities. Approximately 35 of the 50 states have realized the benefits of cooperative agreements with Israel.
As a former Californian, it is good to know that California is a leader in this partnership relationship with Israel. California has one of the largest two-way trade relationships between Israel and a U.S. state, likely because Israel offers innovative ideas and programs that address problems facing Californians.
Israel and California are very much alike, although the entire country of Israel could fit into the state of California 19 times. Weather, climate, topography, flora and fauna are similar. Joshua trees are native only to Israel and the California Mojave Desert. The Dead Sea in Israel, called Yam Hamelach (Salt Sea), is the lowest point on earth, 1300 feet below sea level. California’s salt sea, called the Salton Sea, is 200 feet below sea level. Both are in the southeastern corners — of Israel and California.
Gov. Brown has signed several agreements with Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu to cooperate on research and technology. In 2014 there was an agreement that Israel would export desalination, water recovery and recycling, water filtration, and water security technology to drought-ridden California. Israel is 60 percent desert, but as Bibi stated at the time, “We in Israel do not have a water problem. We use technology to solve it, in recycling, in desalination, in deep drip irrigation and so on. These technologies could be used by California to eliminate its chronic drought problem.”
Learning from Israel
Israel is a technological leader in countering drought because it desalinates sea water, developed software that creates an early-warning system for leaks, computerized drip irrigation, and reuses treated sewage for agriculture. Fifty percent of water used for Israeli agriculture comes from treated sewage. Israel leads the world in treated sewage. Seventy-five percent of Israel’s sewage is recycled.
California also has sister cities with Israeli communities:
- Desert Hot Springs is with Yerocham,
- San Bernardino and Beverly Hills with Herziliya,
- Sacramento with Ashkelon,
- San Francisco and Palm Desert with Haifa,
- Fresno with Afula,
- San Diego with Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council,
- Los Angeles with Eilat and Jerusalem and also a partnership with Tel Aviv.
- Not only is Kiryat Malachi a partnership community with Los Angeles, but it was partially funded by Angelenos.
Since Israel is under constant threat of attack, it has developed and implemented several methods for security enforcement. California cities, like Los Angeles, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herziliya with respect to Los Angeles’s Homeland Security.
Rhe LAPD and the Los Angeles World Airports are trained and educated by Israel on counter terrorism.
Recently, sheriffs, police, and other law enforcement personnel from throughout the U.S. received counter terrorism education and training.
Israel also has developed several programs that have been adopted in the States.
In North Carolina, Advanced International Certificate of Education introduced an Israeli peer tutoring program that is now being implemented in second-grade classrooms throughout the United States. It is known as Reading Together. Orlando has a Memorandum of Understanding for international collaboration between Florida Hospital and Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer for robotic surgical training, medical simulation, and stem cell transplants. In 2008 Hawaii and Israel signed an agreement to bring an electric car network to Hawaii, creating a model for the adoption of electric cars in the U.S. The University of Chicago and Ben Gurion University of the Negev are exploring research that will create new water production and purification technologies using nanotechnology to create materials and processes for making more clean and fresh drinking water.
New Mexico has a strategic cooperation with Israel for water and energy technology. New York has agreements for nanotechnology, biotechnology and public and internal security. The Vermont Israel Agricultural Exchange promotes agricultural research and cooperation for genetic engineering, treatment of cattle diseases, pest management, sustainable agriculture and aquaculture. These are a few of the collaborations between Israel and various states.
Despite the BDS movement, most states know that cooperation and collaboration with Israel is not only important for trade and tourism, but essential for the betterment of their citizens and their states.
L’hitraot. Shachar