Mississippi and Israel
Trade and Population Statistics
| Exports to Israel (2015) |
|
| Percentage Change (2014-2015) |
+26.21% |
| Total Exports to Israel (1996-Present) |
$346,961,788 |
| Israel's Trade Partner Rank (2015) |
37 |
| Military Contracts with Israel (2015) |
|
| Jewish Population (2015) |
9,000 |
| Jewish Percentage of Population |
0.4% |
Binational
foundation grants shared by Mississippi and Israel
Grant recipients in
Mississippi from U.S.-Israel binational foundations:
University of Southern Mississippi
Bilateral
Institutions
American-Israel Chamber of Commerce
Southeast Division -
Though
based in Atlanta, the Southeast Division of the AICC was established
in 1992 to help Israeli businesses explore new markets and develop business
relationships with companies in Georgia as well as Mississippi, Alabama,
North and South Carolina and Tennessee. AICC-SD boasts over 450 members
today amd has earned the reputation as one of the most successful and
effective bi-national business organizations in the United States. Since
its founding, AICC-SD has been involved in completed transactions valued
at over $700 million, thereby contributing to the economies of both
Israel and the Southeastern United States. To learn more about the AICC
Southeast Division, CLICK
HERE.
Cooperative
Agreements - "Memoranda of Understanding"
None. Help us build this section of the Mississippi state page. Email AICE with any additions,
modifications or comments. Thank you.
Mississippi Government Missions to Israel
January 2012 - Senator Thad Cochran (R) traveled to
Israel with Senators Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).
August 2011 - Congressman Steve Palazzo accompanied
the 81-member Congressional delegation to Israel to learn more about
regional politics and the U.S.-Israel relationship.
February 2011 - Governor Haley Barbour took a five
day tour of Israel and met with top Israeli government officials, including
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as part of an effort to build his
resume for a possible run at the presidency in 2012. Gov Barbour spoke
at the Herziliyah Conference, a presitigous Israeli conference on international
security, and echoed Israel's worries about the current Iranian regime.
Additionally, Barbour stressed how important the American-Israeli alliance
is to both countries. "Israel is the Holy Land of democratic faith,"
Barbour said. "We're with you, and we're glad you're with us."
Read more about Gov. Barbour's trip, 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. Mississippi is one of 33 states that have cooperative
agreements with Israel.
In 2012, Mississippi exported over $28,995,499.00 worth
of manufacturing goods to Israel. Since 1996, Mississippi exports to
Israel have totaled more than $$279,483,261.00 and Israel now ranks as Mississippi’s
39th leading trade partner.
Additionally in 2012, Mississippi received more than $692,334.34 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: United State Marine in Gulfport and Navagis, LLC in Jackson.
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 Mississippi.
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 Mississippi is limited only by the imagination.
Mississippi Firms
Profit From Business With 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.
As of yet, however, no Mississippi-based companies have taken advantage
of the opportunities that a BIRD grant offers.
Scientific
Innovations
Mississippi 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.
Institutions in Mississippi have shared with their
counterparts in Israel nearly $150,000 in BSF grants
awarded since 1996 alone.
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.
Institutions in Mississippi, such as the University of Mississippi
and Mississippi State University, have shared BARD grants worth more than $100,000 with their counterparts in Israel.
Professors Larry Hanson and Shane Burgess at Mississippi State University
in 2007 received a three year grant from the BARD Foundation
for collaborative research in animal science. Together with Moshe Kotler
of the Hebrew University's Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, Professor
Hanson and his research team used the grant to develop an effective
vaccine to fight the cyprinid herpesvirus-3 (CyHV-3) virus,
a major disease affecting the common carp fish.
This BARD-sponsored research is incredibly timely and important because
the common carp is one of the most widely farmed freshwater fish species
in the world- according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations more than 3.4 million tons of carp are harvested
annually in Asia, the US and Europe. The CyHV-3 virus, though, is causing
massive losses to this industry because, once infected, a carp fish
is 80-100% likely to die within 6 to 22 days.The original goal of the
project was to provide scientific and technical basis for initiating
certain breeding protocals in the common carp to make the fish more
resistant to this viral disease.
In February 2011, Professor Hanson, together with Professor
Eric Hallerman of Virginia Tech, published the results of the 3-year
collaborative study, and developed the vaccine which is already in use
by Israeli fisheries. The BARD-supported research was
important to finding a sustainable solution to this problem that will
also lead to the establishment of a genetic improvement program for
the carp fish.
For such an important and timely project such as this,
it was of utmost importance that all the researchers could work well
together and complement each others skills. BARD facilitated
excellent communication between the groups in Israel and the United
States and the research was was greatly promoted by this good exchange
of materials, practices and theory. Overall, the collaboration led to
the publication of three joint studies in peer reviewed journals, one
that has been submitted for publication and yet another one that is
in the process of preparation in order to be submitted for publication.
To read more about this project, CLICK
HERE.
Other Cooperative
Programs
In the summer of 2009, Israel Aerospace Industries
moved certain production lines to Starkville where the US plant will
manufacture and assemble drones - small, pilotless planes.
Sister Cities
None. Help us build this section of the Mississippi state page. Email AICE with any additions,
modifications or comments. Thank you.
State
Contacts:
Hillel
Campus Profiles
Jewish Federation of Jackson
5315 Old Canton Rd.
Jackson, MS 39211-4625
Tel. 601-956-6215
Goldring/Woldenberg Institute of Southern Jewish Life
4915 I-55 North, Suite 100A
Jackson, MS
PH. (601) 362-6357
FAX (601) 366-6293
EMAIL: [email protected]
Henry S. Jacobs Summer Camp - Union for Reform Judaism
3863 Morrison Road
Utica, MS 39175
Ph. 601-885-6042
Fax. 601-885-6269
|
