Jemma Dengel
Staff Writer
US Vice President Kamala Harris and Israeli President Isaac Herzog announced a joint five year initiative where the Biden Harris administration and Israel plan to invest a collective 70 million over the next five years. This money will be invested into innovating new technology focused in areas of climate-smart agriculture and water preservation and usage in the Middle East and Africa. Allocations of resources are in hope to address the most pressing problems facing the Middle East, including food security and the climate crisis. This builds off of the initial initiatives of the Memorandum of Understanding in Treated Water Reuse where about fifty US water experts visited Israel to observe their water management. It is also derived off the Middle East Regional Cooperation Program established in 1981, which marked the collaboration of Israeli and Egyptian scientists, and Israel’s USAID-MASHAV Cooperation. They exchange technological information through the Binational Binational Science Foundation (BSF), Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation (BIRD), the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund (BARD), and the U.S.-Israel Education Foundation. This collaboration showcases Israel’s and the US’s strong relationship and focuses on inventing solutions for populations across the world. Once these technologies are employed, other partnerships, such as the Negev Forum and I2U2, will work to advance existing technologies, expand access to tech tools, and/or invest in education, training, and assistance.
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