Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of Arizona

Binational foundation grants shared by Arizona institutions:

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

Arizona State
Fairchild Data Corp.
US Water Conservation Lab
USDA Aridland Watershed Management
USDA Carl Hayden Bee Research Center
University of Arizona

Agreements with Israel:

Arizona Attorney General Janet Napolitano joined eight other attorneys general for a trip to Israel on July 14-22, 1999. The participants in the mission went to explore U.S.-Israel cooperation in legal affairs and discussed issues including youth violence, the death penalty, and extradition laws.

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. No fewer than 23 states have cooperative agreements with Israel.

Arizona does not yet have a formal partnership with Israel; nevertheless, in 2005, Arizona exported roughly $106 million worth of manufacturing goods to Israel. The total since 1996 exceeds $1.3 billion. In 2005, Arizona received $6,742,874 in foreign military financing (FMF) as US military aid to Israel. Israel now ranks as Arizona's 25th 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 Arizona.

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

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 Arizona is limited only by the imagination.

Arizona 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.

More than 90 Arizona companies have discovered the benefits of doing business in Israel, including Gilbert Engineering, White Microelectronics, Burr Brown, Ace Aviation and Litton Systems.

Gilbert Engineering has had 10 years of good experience in selling cable television connectors to Israel. According to Alan Butter, director of international sales and marketing, Gilbert had a Jewish salesperson working for them who found the opportunity to do business with Israel, and they have been selling there ever since. He added that although “the market for cable T.V. is like a roller coaster in that it goes up and down” Gilbert Engineering has been successful and has had no problems dealing with Israel.

White Microelectronics is a manufacturer of memory and micro-processing products that are used in defense oriented programs and telecommunications. They were initially attracted to Israel more than 10 years ago because of the large market for defense items and have since found it easy to do business there. International Sales Support Manager, Kate Hopeman, said “we do business internationally and Israel is one of our most successful markets. Doing business with Israel is really good for American companies because Israel makes a lot of American defense products. A product may be made and produced in Israel but the final result comes back to the U.S.”

For more than eight years, Ace Aviation Service has supplied spare ordinance parts, such as those used in hydraulic or aircraft fittings, to the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Ed Lujan, General Manager of Ace Aviation, said Israel has been “a good market” and the company’s experience dealing with Israel has been very positive when compared to other countries. “I want to reiterate that this relationship is a mutual agreement and dealing with the Ministry of Defense is very advantageous.” Lujan said Israel always pays its bills on time and, unlike the Pentagon, which can take weeks to answer a question, the Israeli government responds in only one day. “I very much like dealing with Israel because they are always very prompt and the questions we ask them are always answered.”

Bob Alexander, International Marketing Manager for Litton Systems, said the Israelis are very knowledgeable about the products they are requesting. Litton Systems has been supplying the Israeli military and law enforcement agencies night vision equipment for more than 20 years. After Litton sells a product to Israel, “they come back for spares, support equipment and service,” said Alexander. Litton Systems has a consultant in Israel who offers Litton products to Israeli agencies. Alexander added that “Israel has always been a good market and I enjoy working with them.”

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). BIRD funds projects in 33 states and the District of Columbia. 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. As of now only Fairchild Data Corporation is the only Arizona company that has taken advantage of the opportunity BIRD offers to reduce the risk of new ventures and tap into the deep pool of Israeli talent.

Scientific Innovations

Arizona researchers are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists supported by the Binational Science Foundation (BSF). BSF was established in 1972 to promote research cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel. BSF 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. Arizona State and the University of Arizona have shared more than $1.6 million with counterparts in Israel through BSF grants awarded since 1987.

Peter Killeen, a professor of psychology at Arizona State and Richard Schuster of Haifa University knew each other in graduate school. Schuster asked Killeen to review a manuscript for a study on cooperation and after he did so, they decided the project could be improved if they worked together. Killeen does more of the mathematical evaluation part of the experiment while Schuster conducts the empirical research.

Together they are trying to gain a better understanding of cooperation and competition. Through experimentation they hope to learn how rewards affect the behavior of two dominant organisms or one dominant and one subordinate. For example, Schuster puts two rats in a box. To get fed they must cooperate. The scientists then look at what reinforcements work in the situation.

As of now, the team is “testing on nonhuman subjects but once we find out more, we will test on humans,” said Killeen. “Thousands of species cooperate, but, when dealing with humans, you have promises. Nonhumans are simpler to start with because they have no language or cultural expectations.” Killeen hopes the experiment will result in “publications, another grant request and fresh ideas for human interactive cooperation.”

University of Arizona astronomer Hans Rix is collaborating with Dan Maoz of Tel Aviv University to study the structure of galaxies. The two scientists were already working together and “the BSF grant allowed us to continue our study,” said Rix. Maoz and Rix visit each other once a year and Rix says their collaboration has been “very productive and good.” Although the research is basic science and will not result in a tangible product, their ultimate goal is to see how the galaxy was formed.

Researchers Zvika Abramsky at Ben-Gurion University in Beer Sheva along with Michael Rosenzweig at the University of Arizona in Tucson developed a project that would enable them to find evidence for the accuracy of mathematical models and statistical graphs of the distribution and variety of species in nature. One particular theory to be tested was whether fitness declines as the population density rises. An experiment was performed with organisms, enclosures (used to control population density) and two different habitats.

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

Improving the growth of infected plants and potentially trying to make a bigger corn seed are two examples of joint research projects conducted 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. Arizona institutions have shared grants worth $5.1 million since 1987.

Plants infected by diseases attributable to nematodes cost U.S. agriculture $9 billion a year. Nematodes are round worms that can be microscopic, such as the type that attack plants, or larger, like those that attack animals (including humans). Although this is a global problem, Israel and Arizona share climatic and soil similarities that make for fruitful scientific collaboration. Michael McClure, a professor of plant pathology at the University of Arizona, is working with Itzchak Spiegel of the Agriculture Research Organization in Israel on a project focusing on what happens when these worms enter a plant.

Most nematodes attack the roots, which stunts their growth and prevents the development of a healthy plant. “We want to find out what we can do to the nematodes so they won’t injure the plant, or what we can do to the plant so the nematodes won’t injure the plant,” said McClure. The two scientists have known each other for years and have worked together in the past. McClure adds that the current project has resulted in “very good and fruitful collaboration which would not have been possible without the BARD grant. BARD provides the opportunity to conduct collaborative work in Israel and the U.S. By working on the same ideas we can pool our ideas and research.”

The University of Arizona’s Brian Larkins is collaborating with Gideon Grafi of the Department of Plant Genetics at the Weizmann Institute in Israel to study cell cycle regulation in the development of maize seeds. Their research focuses on how much protein and starch are made in the corn seed and how that affects crop yield. This grant was awarded in 1997, so the team is still in the early stages of their research. One of the first steps involves putting genes into single cells that will then grow into whole plants. This process alone takes one year. “We are trying to make bigger seeds,” said Larkins. Grafi had been a postdoctoral student of Larkins at Arizona and, according to Larkins, the BARD grant has helped Grafi get started in Israel and has afforded them the opportunity to continue working together.

Arizona, 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 provides it, free of charge, to American farmers and agricultural consultants. By advising growers, such as those in Arizona, on optimal irrigation and fertilization strategies, the system can save farmers an average of about $60 per acre, or about $48 per bale.

Other BARD grantees have helped pecan growers all over the American Southwest. Once farmers were plagued by the premature death, stunted growth and low yields of pecan trees, but researchers from Texas A&M and the Israeli Agricultural Research Organization found that the problem was that soil permeability aggravated the effects of salinity. They developed a series of computerized models, irrigation schedules and recommendations that will prevent such problems in the future. They also developed methods to save the 68,000 acres of pecan trees already planted on inappropriate soils in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

BARD-supported scientists have also developed a more effective technique for packaging fresh fruits — wrapping each fruit in thin, high-density plastic films. This seal prolongs the marketability of the fruit, prevents weight loss and shrinkage 5 to 10 times better than wax, virtually eliminates the need for expensive refrigeration and controls many disfiguring blemishes such as red-blotch in lemons and stem-end rind breakdown in oranges, all without toxic additives. Plastic wrap also reduces water loss, injury and decay in sweet corn, peaches, nectarines and melon. This system is highly useful and attractive for exports as the film can easily be printed with brand name advertising. Studies have shown that this technique could drop the per carton cost of shipping perishable fruits drastically. Commercial plants are already operating in Arizona, California, Israel and elsewhere.

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

The University of Arizona is a member of the International Arid Lands Consortium.

Sister Cities:

City of Page City of Omer

City of Tuscon City of Tiberias

City of Phoenix City of Ramat Gan

UJA Partnership 2000 Communities:

Phoenix Kiryat Malachi-Hof Ashkelon

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts:

Community Relations Council
32 West Coolidge
Phoenix, AZ 85015
Tel. 602­274­1800

Jewish Federation Greater Phoenix
12701 North Scottsdale Road, Suite 201
Scottsdale, AZ 85254-5453
Tel. 480-634 4900
Web: www.jewishphoenix.org

Jewish Federation Of South Arizona
3822 E River Rd #­100
Tucson, AZ 85718­6665
Tel. 520­577­9393

Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona
3822 East River Rd., #100
Tucson, AZ 85718
Tel. 520­577­9393