Moving to Israel

This being a moving to Israel blog and me being (as I often mention) an Oleh from America, I am always fascinated by the relationship of the two countries. They frequently both set examples for the rest of the world and, therefore, all news matters that focus on cooperation between the two always warms my heart. This is why I was happy to read this morning of a treaty to be signed between Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger regarding industrial cooperation in the field of renewable energy. The signing will take place in the course of Schwarzenegger’s visit to Israel as part of the Saban Forum.

The agreement with California will advance strategic commerce cooperation between the State of Israel and California in the renewable energy and environmental technologies fields, by creating partnerships between Israeli firms that specialize in these fields on the one hand, and California industries and municipalities on the other. Mutual investments between the countries will increase, as will research cooperation and other coordination in these fields.

The U.S. renewable energy market has tremendous commercial potential for Israeli companies and trade between the two countries, which dropped 12% between January and September 2009 and the same period last year, should be given a major boost by this latest announcement.

We hope the two democracies will continue to provide guidance to the rest of the world with the trade between them helping to form the foundation.

Ari