Iowa and Israel
Trade and Population Statistics
| Exports to Israel (2015) |
$26,750,062 |
| Percentage Change (2014-2015) |
-33.29% |
| Total Exports to Israel (1996-Present) |
$557,778,382 |
| Israel's Trade Partner Rank (2015) |
42 |
| Military Contracts with Israel (2015) |
$1,567,755 |
| Jewish Population (2015) |
22,500 |
| Jewish Percentage of Population |
0.98% |
Binational
foundation grants shared by Iowa and Israel
Grant recipients in
Iowa from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:
Iowa State University
Pioneer Hi-Bred International
University of Iowa
University of Iowa Medical School
University of Northern Iowa
USDA National Soil Tilth Lab
U.S. Dept. of Energy Ames Lab
Bilateral
Institutions
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Cooperative
Agreements - "Memoranda of Understanding"
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Iowa Government Missions to Israel
July 2010 - State Senator Shawn Hamerlinck
(R-Dixon) went on a peace-keeping trip to Israel sponsored by the American
Council of Young Political Leaders. Read more, CLICK
HERE.
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.
As analyst David Pollock noted, Israel is an advanced country with a population that surpassed eight million people in 2013 and a robust, dynamic economy that allowed it to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Between 2005 and 2013, Israel has represented a larger market for U.S. exports than Saudi Arabia. Although Israel's citizenry make up just 3 percent of the total region's population, Israel accounts for 25 percent of American exports in the Middle East.
"It has also been one of the top 20 foreign direct investors in the United States since 2009," Pollock confirms. He adds that "$2.25 billion of the $3 billion in annual U.S. aid to Israel comes back via Israeli purchases of U.S. military equipment - and that is just 5 percent of the total bilateral trade each year."
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. Iowa is one of 33 states that have cooperative
agreements with Israel.
In 2012, Iowa exported over $48,818,337.00 worth
of manufacturing goods to Israel. Since 1996, Iowa exports to
Israel have totaled more than $482,650,374.00 and Israel now ranks as Iowa’s
34th leading trade partner.
Additionally in 2012, Iowa received more than
$223,602.08 in foreign military financing (FMF) for US military aid
to Israel. Some of those companies that have received funding through FMF in 2012 or past years
include: Fairfield Aluminum Castings Company in Fairfield and Vermeer Manufacturing in Pella.
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 Iowa.
Israel has developed a number of pioneering education programs. For example, AICE introduced an innovative Israeli
peer tutoring program to North Carolina that educators adapted for use
in the United States. Now known as Reading Together, the program is
used in 28 states. The program is designed to help students achieve
reading fluency and is mostly used for children in second grade. The
hope is that with its implementation, increasing numbers of students
will perform at grade level or above.
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 Iowa is limited only by the imagination.
Iowa Firms
Profit From Business With Israel
As the only country with a free trade agreement 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 National Semiconductor have found that it is indeed profitable to
do business in Israel.
Many Iowa-based companies have also
discovered the benefits of trade with Israel, including
giants like Rockwell International, Amana Refrigeration
and the Aluminum Company of America.
Rockwell's Cedar Rapids offices have long been selling military
and civilian products to Israel. Currently, for example, Israel's military
is buying navigation and communications equipment. Rockwell also subcontracts
some of its defense work to Israeli companies. The commercial division
exports avionics packages for Israeli business jets.
The Instrument and Life Support Division of Litton Systems
has also exported to the Israeli Air Force. Their products include onboard
oxygen generating systems. Recently, Israeli Air Force officers came
to Davenport for training in the use of onboard inert gas operating
systems on the AH-64 Apache helicopter.
Cemen Tech of Indianola was chosen by the Israeli Air Force
to design a rapid runway repair system. The first machine has been delivered
and the company is hoping the Israelis will order several more. Company
President Gary Ruble said doing business with Israel was a "terrific
experience. We just want more of it."
Another company that has done well in Israel is Des Moines-based
Hicklin Engineering, which has been doing business there for at least
a decade. Sales Engineer Jack Campbell said the company has most recently
sold equipment used to test transmissions in military vehicles.
Iowa companies have also successfully marketed nonmilitary
goods in Israel. Cedar Falls-based Viking Pump, for example, has a distributor
in Israel and has been selling industrial pumps and parts used there
for at least two decades. And Amana Refrigeration has kept an on-going
business relationship with Israel for over thirty years, selling household
refrigerators and commercial microwaves through its distributor in Israel.
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 36 states and the District of
Columbia and hundreds of companies including AOL, GE, BP Solar, Texas
Instruments and Johnson & Johnson have benefitted from BIRD grants.
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 800
joint high-tech R&D projects through conditional grants totaling
more than $210 million. Products developed from these ventures have
generated more than $8 billion in direct and indirect revenues for both
countries and has helped to create an estimated 20,000 American jobs.
Dr. Eli Opper, the former Israeli chair of BIRD, has
said that BIRD is a strong pillar of US-Israel industrial
cooperation and that the extreme success of BIRD has
led Israel to adopt similar models of R&D with other countries.
Hundreds of companies have benefited from hundreds of millions of dollars
in BIRD grants over the last three decades.
In 2011, the BIRD Foundation awarded
its first grant to an Iowa-based company when they selected Pioneer
Hi-Bred International, out of Johnston, to work with the Israeli company
Evogene to develop soybean varieties tolerant to foliar diseases. Their BIRD-sponsored collaboration has now just only been
created but great things are expected.
Scientific
Innovations
Iowa researchers are making scientific breakthroughs
and developing cutting-edge technologies in joint projects with Israeli
scientists thanks to support from the Binational
Science Foundation (BSF). BSF was established in 1972 to promote scientific relations
and cooperation between scientists from the United States and Israel.
The fund supports collaborative research projects in a wide area of
basic and applied scientific field for peaceful and non-profit purposes.
Since its inception, BSF has awarded some $480 million
through more than 4,000 grants in 45 states and the District of Columbia.
BSF-sponsored studies are highly successful
in achieving their two main goals: strengthening the US-Israel partnership
through science and promoting world-class scientific research for the
benefit of the two countries and all mankind. The BSF grants help extend research resources to achieve milestones that might
not otherwise be attainable; introduce novel approaches and techniques
to lead American researchers in new directions; confirm, clarify and
intensify research projects; and provide unmatched access to Israeli
equipment, facilities and research results that help speed American
scientific advances. BSF has documented no less than
75 new discoveries made possible by its research grants and counts 37
Nobel Prize and 19 Lasker Medical Award laureates among its joint partners.
Iowa institutions have shared with their counterparts
in Israel nearly $1.6 million in BSF grants awarded
since 1996 alone. The U.S. Department of Energy Ames Lab, University
of Iowa and Iowa State are among the grant recipients.
Ralph Ackerman is a zoologist at Iowa State who has
collaborated on three BSF grants with a colleague in
Tel Aviv. His focus is on the physiology of vertebrate eggs and embryos.
Ackerman studied lizards in the Israeli desert to learn more about their
development. He believes obtaining a better understanding of how their
eggs exchange water and carbon dioxide will aid efforts to breed and
conserve reptiles. "I don't have much chance to work with reptiles
in Iowa," he said, so the BSF grant gave him an
opportunity to study them in the field. "They have a great lab
at Tel Aviv University and world-class reptologists." He described
the information he gained from the collaboration as "priceless."
Iowa State chemist Jim Espenson had a common research
interest with a professor at Ben-Gurion University and suggested applying
for a BSF grant. They examined reactions of metal compounds.
The study provided a new way to make organometallic compounds and a
better understanding of the chemistry related to free radical molecules.
Espenson said his collaborator's interest complemented his own and that
the give-and-take help refine their thoughts. Each also had access to
techniques the other lacked, so both researchers benefitted.
Much of the BSF research is at a basic
level so the applications are not immediately apparent. This is particularly
true of the work of mathematicians. Paul Muhly studies operator algebras
at the University of Iowa. The math is complex, but, he said, the construct
underlies modern physics. Explanations for why water boils and some
other liquids freeze, as well as the electromagnetic forces in nature
are based on the type of math explored by Muhly. It also plays a role
in the design and control of systems, for example, figuring out how
to keep an airplane flying.
"We make a good team," Muhly says of his
collaborator from the Technion. "We've written about 20 papers
together. Mathematicians need few resources; however, the ability to
talk face to face and exchange ideas is essential and the BSF grant allows us to travel to do that."
BSF documented no less than 75 new
discoveries that probably would not have been possible without foundation-supported
collaboration. These advances included the development of new methods
and techniques, the discovery of new phenomena and major theoretical
breakthroughs.
Agriculture
Benefits
In 1978 the United States and Israel jointly created the Binational
Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD)
to help fund programs between US and Israeli scientists for mutually
beneficial, mission-oriented, strategic and applied research into agricultural
problems. Since its inception, BARD has funded more
than 1,000 projects in 45 states and the District of Columbia with a
total investment of more than $250 million. In 2000, an independent
and external economic review of 10 BARD projects conservatively
projected more than $700 million in revenue by the end of 2010, a number
which far outweighs the total investment in all BARD projects over its 33 year existence and helps to continually strengthen
the foundation.
Most BARD projects focus on either increasing agricultural
productivity, plant and animal health or food quality and safety and
have been influential in creating new technologies in drip irrigation,
pesticides, fish farming, livestock, poultry, disease control and farm
equipment. BARD funds projects in 45 states and the
District of Columbia and at present is beginning to administer collaborative
efforts between Australia, Canada and Israel as well. 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.
Iowa institutions have shared grants worth more than $2.74 million since
1979.
Supported by BARD funds starting in
2009, scientists Russel Jurenka from Iowa State University and Ada Rafaeli
from the Volcani Center in Israel started to characterize the night-flying
moth's pheromone release system. They are currently working on identifying
the binding site smf gene of these moths in order to better understand
what molecular interactions occur during activation of the hormone.
The researchers anticipate that their interdisciplinary
research will generate innovative, specific and biologically safe insecticide
compounds that can prevent the female moths from producing sex pheromones
and, therefore, can help farmers control the insects population.
The BARD funds have enabled Dr. Jurenka
to study the corn earnworm, one of the most devastating pests for US
agriculture, while simultaneously collaborating on findings with Dr.
Rafaeli who is studying the cotton bollworm, one of the most devastating
pests in Europe and Asia. Their findings could provide an enviornmentally
favorable way to control these pests and therefore could be a huge benefit
to the agriculture fields in many countries. Find out more about this
research HERE.
Don Reynolds is investigating a disease that afflicts turkey
poults. By comparing data from Israel, it was possible to determine
the cause was not related to the origin of the birds. He and his collaborator
characterized infections that had not been discovered before and hope
to find a way to prevent the disease.
If one-hundred units of water fall on arid lands and
half is lost through evaporation, crop production is limited. Jerry
Hatfield is studying ways of modifying the soil surface to capture more
water. Working with his Israeli counterpart, Hatfield says, gives him
access to different arid land types and a better understanding of them.
He also finds that contact with scientists in different environments
broadens his perspective. He called the collaboration "extremely
beneficial" and observed that Iowa can benefit from what they learn
about water conservation.
Another study examines the impact of agricultural production
on groundwater quality. Stanley Johnson is concerned with maintaining
farming efficiency while maintaining water quality so it meets the requirements
of the Clean Water Act. He has looked at crop rotation and different
applications of water. Johnson is pleased the BARD grant will strengthen institutional ties between Iowa State and Hebrew
University. He believes it will also result in better agricultural research
and stimulate interaction that will endure.
Donald Beitz is interested in the genetic material
that determines variation in dairy cows. The research could have profound
implications for understanding reproduction, health traits and milk
production and subsequently affect breeding value. Another application
may be to learn more about diseases in livestock. One specific benefit
of the BARD grant was to have Israeli researchers verify
his results. More generally, it made possible greater scientific interaction,
"and you can't put a dollar value on this type of exchange,"
said Beitz.
Researchers at Iowa State have also analyzed national dairy
cattle records and shown that breeding for disease resistance is possible,
and that previous U.S. selection for milk production may have inadvertently
reduced cow fertility. A computer program developed by the university
is now routinely used to evaluate sires. Another project involves the
study of intergenerational transfers by farmers, the performance of
regional cooperatives and the regulation of nitrogen pollution.
Iowa also benefits from BARD research
done elsewhere. For example, BARD grantees are working
on a virus that could protect corn from smut diseases.
Other Cooperative
Programs
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Sister Cities
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UJA Partnership
2000 Communities
State
Contacts:
Hillel
Campus Profiles
American-Israel Chamber of Commerce (also covers Iowa)
6311 Wayzata Blvd., #240
Minneapolis, MN 55416-1224
Tel. 612-593-8666
Fax. 612-593-8668
Email. [email protected]
Web. http://www.aiccmn.org
Jewish Community Relations Council
910 Polk Blvd.
Des Moines, IA 50312
Tel. 515-277-6321
Fax. 515-277-4069
Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines
910 Polk Blvd.
Des Moines, IA 50312
Tel. 515-277-6321
Jewish Federation Of Sioux City
815 38th St
Sioux City, IA 51104-1417
Tel. 712-258-0618
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