Michael Eisenstadt David Pollock How the United States Benefits ...

with a number of other countries, including
regional neighbors Jordan and Kuwait) has long
been designated a “major non-NATO ally,” and
because Israel possesses recognized cutting-edge
cybersecurity capabilities, it would be a logical
candidate for inclusion in the next tier of official
U.S. multilateral efforts in this domain. The explicit
mention of China, Russia, and Iran as potential
cybersecurity threats—first in October 2011 FBI
and Department of Defense reports to Congress
and then in the January 2012 U.S. intelligence
community statement to Congress—may be
another indicator of the potential for enhancing
the official U.S.-Israel cyber partnership. 50
Water and Food Security
There is a broad consensus among both governmental
and nongovernmental specialists that large
parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia
will likely experience destabilizing water and food
shortages in the not-too-distant future, due to rapid
population growth, climate change, and economic
development, and that these shortages will pose
major policy challenges for the developed world. 51
Though not a developing country, the United States
itself is hardly immune to these trends. The U.S.
southwest has in recent years experienced severe
drought conditions that have stressed this already
arid region, reducing crop yields and livestock production
and contributing to a spate of devastating
wildfires; in the first half of 2012 alone, more than
half the country experienced drought conditions. 52
Dealing with these challenges will require new
approaches to water management and agriculture.
Israel has been developing innovative solutions
to the problems of water scarcity, desertification,
and arid region agriculture since its establishment. 53
Israel recycles about 80 percent of its wastewater,
the highest level in the world, and is actively seeking
to share its expertise in this area in international
forums. Israel is also a pioneer of drip irrigation
for farming in arid regions, with Israeli-developed
products capturing 50 percent of global market
share for this particular technology. 54 For instance,
How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel
the Israeli drip-irrigation company Netafim,
with a presence in more than 100 countries, has
established a major manufacturing facility for its
products in Fresno, California, generating hundreds
of jobs and millions of dollars in revenues. 55
A recent report by the Cleantech Group and the
World Wildlife Fund put Israel in second place,
after Denmark, in fostering innovations that help
provide environmentally sustainable solutions to
global water, food, energy, climate change, and
related problems. 56 Despite Israel’s small domestic
market and inconsistent environmental policies, the
report rated Israel as “the clear winner” in terms of
emerging cleantech innovation. The evidence cited
includes the following: “by far the most Global
Cleantech 100 companies per GDP, the second
highest concentration of cleantech VC [venture
capital] activity,” and the sixth highest global rating
for “environmental technology patent filing.” Israel,
according to this report, “is especially strong in
water innovation”—motivated by “the serious water
scarcity that affects the region” and by “Mekorot,
the highly innovative water utility that regularly
partners with local cleantech start-ups.” 57 A specific
example noted is the newly patented TaKaDu
water network monitoring service for detecting
water loss, which Israel has begun exporting and
installing in Europe and elsewhere.
Desalination is another area in which Israel
has developed expertise, particularly in the reverse
osmosis process. Short of natural freshwater
sources, Israel has increased its desalination
capacity exponentially in the past half decade, from
20 million cubic meters in 2005 to 300 million
cubic meters in 2011—with firm plans to double
that number by 2013. It now ranks fourth in the
world in freshwater production by reverse osmosis,
after Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria (each of
which has a population at least three times that of
Israel). While reverse osmosis does not produce
electricity, as does the more common desalination
method—thermal “double process,” or “combined
process,” distillation—the osmotic method requires
less energy input and may be more suitable in
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