Cooperation Between Israel
and the State of South Carolina

Binational foundation grants shared by South Carolina institutions:

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

AVX Corp.
Clemson
Policy Management System
University of South Carolina
USDA U.S. Vegetable Lab

Agreements with Israel

In 1992, Gov. Carroll Campbell, Jr. signed a Memorandum of Intent to establish a South Carolina-Israel Exchange to promote trade, investment, agriculture, education and tourism.

South Carolina Attorney General Charlie Condon 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, including South Carolina, have cooperative agreements with Israel.

In 2007, South Carolina exported almost $29 million worth of manufacturing goods to Israel. The total value of exports since 1996 exceeds $350 million. In addition, South Carolina companies received $3,930,906 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 South Carolina's 49th 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 South Carolina.

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 South Carolina is limited only by the imagination.

South Carolina 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 30 South Carolina companies have discovered the benefits of doing business in Israel, including AVX Corporation, Uniroyal, Amida Industries, and Magnecroft Electric Company.

Terex Cranes has had over “30 years of historically good relations” selling construction cranes and lifts to Israel, said Terex’s Government Project Manager Jeff Blacker. Comasco Ltd. is Terex’s distributor and “are excellent representatives for us,” according to Blacker. The market in Israel is large for these products and Terex sales have been around $1 million per year. Blacker said that Comasco has helped make it easier to do business in Israel than many other countries.

Since about 1993, Amida Industries has been exporting mobile floodlight towers used by the Israeli army and air force. Their first experience in Israel was “working with the power companies there and because everything is so integrated between the government, municipalities and military, and done on a project by project basis, business grew,” said International Sales Coordinator Regina Lark. Amida has had a local agent based in Israel for about 7 or 8 years. He provides sales support as well as training classes, technical and manual support, helps with warranty procedures and anything else needed to be done in Hebrew. Lark said that “having somebody in the country is a big plus.” The process of quoting, designing, working with the engineers, doing research, dealing with the Israeli Economic Mission in New York and corresponding with everyone else involved in negotiations takes more than a year. In addition, the actual manufacturing of the specially designed product takes 6-8 months. Despite the long procedure, Amida has been extremely successful in their business interactions with Israel and signed some very large contracts.

The Israeli Defense Ministry came to Carolina Steel and Wire Corporation to purchase products used in the aircraft industry. The company has now been selling aircraft cables to Israel for the past 25 years. John Floyd, Vice President of Sales, said they were attracted to doing business with Israel because of the opportunity to make money. Most of Israel's purchases, for example, helicopter wrenches, are made indirectly through Carolina Steel and Wire’s suppliers.

Kigre, Inc. has also been exporting to Israel for a long time. For 15 years, they have sold laser rods, filter tubes and laser components used for medical lasers. Operations manager Elaine Verret said Israel is a very good market to be a part of.

Clark-Schwebel Fiber Glass Corporation has been exporting woven fiber glass fabrics to Israel for the past 10 to 15 years. These materials are used mostly as replacement parts in the aerospace industry. Their business cooperation began when Israel came to Clark-Schwebel and inquired about a quote on a specific product. Greg Reinert of the customer service department said that banking has been an issue in terms of establishing credit terms with Israel, but otherwise their business interactions have been good and easy.

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. BIRD funds projects in 33 states and the District of Columbia. 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. Two South Carolina companies—AVX Corporation and Policy Management Systems—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.

AVX Corp. has been doing business with Israel for at least the past eight years or more, said Senior Account Manager Chris Parks. AVX imports electronic capacitors from Israel. These are components that go into computers or telephones. Ever since AVX purchased a manufacturing plant in Israel, South Carolina and Israel have been doing business together. Despite the long distance, working with Israel “is as easy as working with anybody else,” said Parks.

Scientific Innovations

Researchers from South Carolina are making scientific breakthroughs and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli scientists supported by the Binational Science Foundation. 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. The University of South Carolina has shared with counterparts in Israel more than $55,000 in grants awarded by BSF since 1987.

While some BSF projects have practical applications, many involve basic science and are meant only to stimulate advances in a particular field. This is typically the case of grantees in mathematics. University of South Carolina mathematics professor Ronald Devore works in a branch of mathematics that studies constrained approximation. This is when scientific data is acquired and is to be displayed on a computer screen while still retaining certain characteristics that the data should have. For example, if data increases in time and you want to mimic what occurs in nature, you work with curves and surfaces. Everyday examples of these are stock market curves. According to Dr. Devore, “this research considers methods for rendering data as curves or surfaces. The main feature of the project is to retain any inherent geometrical features of the data such as monotonicity and convexity.”

Together with his Tel Aviv University colleague, Dany Leviatan, Devore has created practical applications for this research such as creating computer-aided designs for airplanes and automobiles. Devore said that they visit each other then work separately and exchange information via email. He said that this is “the typical way mathematicians collaborate. We meet for a week or two during the year.”

Devore also collaborates with Eitan Tadmor, also of Tel Aviv University, as part of a Naval Research Grant. “Some of the best mathematicians are Israelis,” said Dr. Devore, “so it is useful for me and hopefully useful for them. Hopefully we will continue to collaborate over the years.”

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

Studying the rapid multiplication of plants and food preservatives in bacteria are just two examples of the joint research projects conducted by South Carolina and Israel 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 that have led to new technologies in drip irrigation, pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm equipment. In 2005, 28 projects were funded at 31 U.S. institutions. New projects promote increased quantity, and improved quality of agricultural produce. South Carolina institutions have shared grants worth more than $1.8 million since 1987.

For three years Professor Roy Young of Clemson University worked with the Volcani Center in Israel studying alternative techniques for micropropagation. Normally, parts of a plant are taken from a mother plant and when placed in a hormone solution called agre the plant material multiplies. Rather than using this base to grow the plants, Young used an alternative liquid sugar base solution to grow the membrane material. The results of this study have been the rapid multiplication of genetic plant material that are not only virus free but also exact replicates of the parent plant. Commercially, this is extremely useful because of the fast duplication of new virus free plants. Young said of his experience with his Israel collaborators, “We had a super relationship and still communicate. I had a very positive experience [with the BARD grant collaboration].”

Dr. Susan Barefoot, Director of the School of Applied Science and Agribusiness at Clemson University, is currently working on her second BARD grant. Both grants involve research on natural anamicrobials, food preservatives. The first project looked for the anamicrobials, began to determine their uses and looked at ways to increase their production so they could be produced in useful quantities. Often bacteria only produces enough for their own sustenance, but they cannot be used commercially unless they are produced in great quantities. The current project is using the anamicrobials to develop ways to move genes around propiani bacteria, the producer of the anamicrobials, which are found in acids, vitamins and make the holes in Swiss cheese. Although not at this stage yet, Dr. Barefoot and her collaborators, Dr. Natan Gollob of the Volcani Center in Israel and Dr. Bonita Glatz from Iowa State University, hope to modify the propiani bacteria so they will better understand their uses. Then it may be possible to prevent food born illness and increase the shelf life of products, and do both more economically.

“It is useful to learn what their needs are in Israel,” said Dr. Barefoot. “We have some common needs. Dr. Gollob has a more molecular expertise. We can compliment each others work that way. We share data and ideas, which helps each of us to come up with new ideas and maybe work out some problems we’re running into.”

Other BARD researchers have created computer models that predict whether the upcoming winter’s temperature will affect the bloom of peach trees in South Carolina, Georgia and Israel, or whether growers should spray them with special growth control chemicals. By giving advance warning, farmers are able to mobilize in time to prevent significant loss.

A BARD-sponsored design used for the processing of potatoes, onions and flower bulbs in packing houses has been applied to an industrial application used in the separation of usable from damaged fruit. This new invention helps BARD grantees at Clemson and the Volcani Center automatically sort fresh peaches by their firmness. Other assembly-line inventions assess other vital characteristics of fresh fruit.

Once these fruits and vegetables, which are very profitable in South Carolina, are picked and sorted they often face the problem of over ripening and decay. During harvest season, overloaded processing plants need to store fresh apricots and peaches while maintaining their firmness, fresh taste and attractive appearance. Thanks to BARD grantees, this is now possible. Researchers have found that modified atmospheres containing 5 percent CO₂ and 2 percent oxygen help preserve color, taste and texture for subsequent canning.

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

Hillel Campus Profiles

State Contacts

Charleston Jewish Federation
1645 Raoul Wallenberg Blvd., P.O. Box 31298
Charleston, SC 29407
Tel. 843-571-6565
Fax. 843-556-6206

Columbia Jewish Federation
4540 Trenholm Rd., P.O. Box 6968
Columbia, SC 29260
Tel. 803-787-2023

Federated Jewish Charities of Greenville
P.O. Box 17615
Greenville, SC 29606
Tel. 803-244-1261