Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Alabama

Binational foundation grants shared by Alabama institutions:

Recipients of grants from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:

Auburn
McDonnell Douglas
Tennessee Valley Authority
Tuskegee University
University of Alabama
University of South Alabama

Agreements with Israel:

Gov. Fob James, Jr. led a trade mission to Israel in October 1997 and signed a formal cooperation agreement to improve trade relations, encourage investments and technology transfers and promote the exchange of ideas and company representatives, engineers, scientists and other specialists. Alabama also now has a trade representative in Israel.

Partners For Change

The U.S.-Israel relationship is based on the twin pillars of shared values and mutual interests. Given this commonality of interests and beliefs, it should not be surprising that support for Israel is one of the most pronounced and consistent foreign policy values of the American people.

It is more difficult to devise programs that capitalize on the two nations' shared values than their security interests; nevertheless, such programs do exist. In fact, these SHARED VALUE INITIATIVES cover a broad range of areas, including the environment, science and technology, education and health.

Today's interdependent global economy requires that trade policy be developed at the national and state level.

Many states have recognized the opportunity for realizing significant benefits by seeking to increase trade with Israel. After signing a new agreement in 1997, Alabama is now one of 22 states that have cooperative agreements with Israel.

Alabama's formal partnership with Israel began at the end of 1997. The following year, Alabama's exports to Israel of manufacturing goods shot up a remarkable 306%. In 2007, trade totaled over $57 million. The total since 1996 exceeds $390 million. In addition, Alabama companies received $82,812,424 in 2006 for U.S. government-funded military contracts with Israel through the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program (U.S. military assistance to Israel). Israel now ranks as Alabama's 30th leading trade partner.

Israel is certainly a place where potential business and trade partners can be found. It can also be a source, however, for innovative programs and ideas for addressing problems facing the citizens of Alabama.

Israel, for example, has developed a number of pioneering education programs. One, the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), has been praised by President Clinton as “the best preschool program on earth” and replicated throughout the country, including Montgomery and Goodnews Bay.

A range of other exciting approaches to social problems like unemployment, environmental protection and drug abuse have been successfully implemented in Israel and could be imported for the benefit of Americans.

The potential for greater cooperation with Israel for the benefit of Alabama is limited only by the imagination.

Alabama Firms Profit From Business With Israel

As the only country with free trade agreements with both the United States and the European community, Israel can act as a bridge for international trade between the United States and Europe. Moreover, because of the deep pool of talent, particularly in high-technology areas, Israel provides excellent investment opportunities. Some of the nation's largest companies, such as IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Intel and McDonald’s have found that it is indeed profitable to do business in Israel.

Alabama Governor Fob James led a week long 26-delegate trade mission to Israel in October 1997 to join what he labeled “a handful of states that already recognize the best opportunities for trade and economic development with Israel.” Alabama, nicknamed “the cotton state,” serves as the source of industrial equipment for Israeli cotton gins. The state has also begun to provide various kinds of equipment in railroad maintenance, material handling and industrial waste-removal equipment.

At least 45 Alabama companies have discovered the benefits of doing business in Israel, including Windustrial, EBSCO, VME Microsystems and Guzzler Manufacturing, Inc.

Anniston Windustrial is another company with long experience in Israel. For fifteen years Windustrial has been a large supplier of military items to the Department of Defense. The DoD orders supplies such as replacement parts, pumps, and water valves which they then supply to allied countries, such as Israel. Windustrial has been supplying Israel with these parts for five years.

Troy-based Lockheed-Martin is collaborating with Rafael Military Industries to manufacture the Israeli-designed Popeye missiles. Rafael now seeks to serve as a subcontractor for Lockheed-Martin, who in mid-April won a $2 billion contract to manufacture American-designed JASSM cruise missiles for the American military.

Intergraph Israel Software Development Center (IISDC), provider of IT solutions for process control, instrumentation, and electrical engineering, and Huntsville, Alabama.-based Intergraph Corporation, a supplier of interactive computer graphics systems, have jointly developed SmartPlant Electrical, a new product that will provide its users with an integrated relational database engineering tool. Using a client-server environment, the software will enable engineers, technicians, and designers from operating plants and engineering companies dealing with electrical design to effectively and easily create, access, maintain and deliver engineering documentation in a professional manner.

Guzzler Manufacturing Inc., a subsidiary of the Federal Signal Corporation, is a world class producer of industrial solid and liquid waste-removal vehicles. A year ago, Guzzler established a dealership in Israel after becoming aware of Israelis' growing sensitivity to environmental issues that created a market for their tankers. In addition, Signal’s vehicle division succeeded in selling emergency vehicles from a sister firm in Florida to Israeli fire fighting services as well as to civilian and military airports. Guzzler is negotiating with a large number of potential customers including Dead Sea Works, the Israel Electric Company and regional water plants.

VME Microsystems International Inc. has been selling printed circuit boards for computers for the past several years. They got started in Israel through leads from trade shows. A spokesman from VME said that “business in Israel seems pretty good.”

EBSCO has been doing business in Israel for about thirty-five years, said Brenda Hamm of the international marketing and special services department. EBSCO is a subscription agency and works with libraries throughout Israel. The libraries order subscriptions through EBSCO who then deals with the publisher and handles all of the customer service problems for the publisher. EBSCO initially began selling magazines door to door and when they realized that there was a desire to learn, they branched out and became an international company. EBSCO is attracted to libraries worldwide and based on their length of investment in Israel, they have been doing great business.

Ralph E. Buntyn, vice president of marketing at Birmingham-based Motion Industries Inc., the world’s largest distributor of bearings, transmissions and hose products, went on the October 1997 trade mission with the governor. He told Link Magazine that Israel is “on the cutting edge of technological development in many fields,” however, developing ties will take time. For his company, “communication with Israeli parties continues” but a partnership has yet to be finalized.

One good way to break into the Israeli market is through a joint venture with an Israeli company. Funding for such projects is available from the Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD). The United States and Israel established BIRD in 1977 to fund joint U.S.-Israeli teams in the development and subsequent commercialization of innovative, nondefense technological products from which both the Israeli and American company can expect to derive benefits commensurate with the investments and risks. Most grant recipients are small businesses involved with software, instrumentation, communications, medical devices and semiconductors.

Since its inception, BIRD has funded more than 740 joint high-tech R&D projects through conditional grants totaling more than $210 million. Products developed from these ventures have generated sales of $5 billion, tax revenues of more than $700 million in both countries and created an estimated 20,000 American jobs. Up until now, no Alabama companies have taken advantage of the opportunity to reduce the risk of new ventures and tap into the deep pool of Israeli talent through the BIRD program.

Scientific Innovations

Alabama researchers are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists supported by the Binational Science Foundation (BSF). It has awarded nearly 3,000 grants, involving more than 2,000 scientists more than 400 institutions in 44 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Auburn and the University of Alabama have shared with counterparts in Israel nearly $100,000 in BSF grants awarded since 1987.

BSF was established in 1972 to promote research cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. BSF-sponsored studies benefit the United States by extending research resources to achieve milestones that might not otherwise be attainable; introducing novel approaches and techniques that can lead American researchers to move in new directions; confirming, clarifying and intensifying research projects; providing access to Israeli equipment and facilities and early access to Israeli research results that speed American scientific advances. BSF documented no less than 75 new discoveries that probably would not have been possible without foundation-supported collaboration.

A 1999 external economic review took an in depth look at 10 BSF projects. These 10 alone, produced aggregate benefits of $780 million, a figure four times the total expenditure of BARD since its inception (1978). The benefits accrue to the United States, to Israel and to both countries together.

Agriculture Benefits

Genetically improved farmed fish, advanced technology in cotton crops, and lean chickens are just a few examples of the joint research projects conducted by Alabama and Israeli scientists under the auspices of the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund. BARD was created in 1978 with equal contributions by the United States and Israel. Since its inception, BARD has funded more than 800 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia. In 2005, 28 projects were funded at 31 U.S. institutions. New projects promote increased quantity and improved quality of agricultural produce. Alabama institutions have shared grants worth more than $2.6 million since 1987.

Professor Rex Dunham of the Department of Fisheries at Auburn University has been an unofficial collaborator with Israel since 1968 and has received several BARD grants since 1979. Dunham has been extremely successful in his study of aquaculture genetics. The goal behind his project is to grow fish, such as catfish, carp and Tilapia, faster to get them to market quicker. By studying selective breeding, growth rates have increased by about 50 percent. Neal Smitherman initiated the fish genetics program at Auburn and because Israelis are the fathers of the field, and among the few aquaculture geneticists, they were obvious partners. Since then, Dunham said their friendship and collaboration has grown and solidified. Dunham added that his counterpart at Tel Aviv University, Boaz Moav, “is skilled in molecular genetics. We use some of their constructs. Two hands are better than one and discussing projects puts more heads and hands [together].”

Fish farmers use the new technology now to grow fish faster. The collaborators at Auburn University and Tel Aviv University are now working on new growth hormone constructs “to refine what we’ve done in the past,” said Professor Dunham.

Auburn's Joseph Kloepper received a BARD grant to do research in the area of biological control of plant diseases. In cooperation with Israel’s Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Kloepper and his Israeli counterpart tested bacteria to protect plants against diseases and studied how bacteria moved within plants. Although no immediate product resulted from this two-year study, their publications stimulated interest in the general area of controlling plant bacterial diseases and several companies expressed interest in using the findings of the research. Kloepper had a very good experience dealing with Israelis, noting “they are extremely well trained and Israel is good place to do agricultural research.”

Alabama, one of the country's largest producers of cotton (total U.S. production exceeds $5 billion a year), also benefits from BARD research done outside of the state. Joint research resulting from a BARD grant has shaped the way cotton is grown today. BARD grantees from Israel and Mississippi developed and tested a computer model that would reduce the amount of water and fertilizer cotton farmers need to produce their crops. Their research resulted in an invention called COTMOD, which describes how water, soil, fertilizer and farming practices affect cotton production. The model can also be expanded to predict the fate of pesticides and environmental contaminations as well. The USDA combined this model with two others and provide it, free of charge, to American farmers and agricultural consultants. By advising growers, such as those in Alabama, on optimal irrigation and fertilization strategies, the system can save farmers an average of about $60 per acre, or about $48 per bale.

Rift Valley Fever is a debilitating mosquito born virus that infects cattle, sheep, and humans in many developing countries and is fatal in young lambs and calves. BARD grantees from the University of Alabama, Kimron Veterinary Institute in Israel and the USAMRIID Lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland have developed an RVF vaccine. The virus was harvested, grown, altered, regrown and mutated until the virus was so genetically tailored that it was too weak to produce the actual illness, but still potent enough to induce a protective immune reaction. In addition to helping developing countries where RVF is common, the results from these studies also protect the $28 billion U.S. cattle raising industry by preparing the U.S. for random but lethal outbreaks of this virus.

“Crash diets” are being found to be very useful for turkeys and chickens. Through these “crash diets” the broilers produce mostly lean meat and not fat. This was discovered by BARD grantees in Israel and the U.S. In the end, everyone wins. The consumer gets leaner, more nutritious chickens, and may lower their risk of arteriosclerosis and the farmer gets a more efficient, profitable crop, including savings of 4-8 percent on feed alone. Alabama produces more than $500 million worth of broilers a year so this new farming and feeding technique means enormous savings for the state’s farmers.

A team of agricultural economists from the University of Maryland and the University of California found that the economic benefits of just five projects—related to cotton, pecans and solarization—exceeded all U.S. investment in BARD. New projects promote increased quantity and improved quality of agricultural produce.

It is difficult to break down the impact on a state-by-state basis, but, overall, BARD-sponsored research has generated sales of more than $500 million, tax revenues of more than $100 million and created more than 5,000 American jobs.

Other Cooperative Programs

McDonnell Douglas of Huntsville will share a $5.3 million grant from the U.S.-Israel Science & Technology Commission with three Israeli companies, Rotem, YEDA and Ormat, for a joint project to develop a pilot solar power station that will produce electricity at competitive prices.

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts:

Birmingham Jewish Federation
P.O. Box 130219
Birmingham, AL 35213
Tel. 205­879­0416

Jewish Federation of Montgomery
2421 Presidents Dr #­16
Montgomery, AL 36116­1612
Tel. 334­277­5820

Mobile Jewish Welfare Fund
One Office Park, #219
Mobile, AL 36609
Tel. 334­343­7197

Yoram Ettinger
Exop­Export Opportunities Ltd.
26 Usihshkin St.
Jerusalem, Israel 91077
Tel. 02-563-5232
Fax. 02-679-3606
Email: Yoramtex@netmedia.co.il
Web. http://www.alabama-israel-me.co.il/