03-01 North America

The US and Israeli flags tell it all. A powerful relationship. Shared values, sure. A quasi-religious belief that Israel should survive. Certainly, there are people in Canada that feel the same way as Americans about the importance of Israel in biblical terms.
But as a technology and innovation superpower, the real nature of the relationship between Israel and North America is the partnerships in place to deal with the big issues of our time: missile defence, renewable energy, medical devices, water shortages, cybersecurity, drone technology and food production. If it's anything futuristic, anywhere in the world, assume there is an Israeli footprint somewhere.
Smart North American companies building knowledge-intensive technologies today put a research facility in Israel. Organizations like the CIIRDSF (which means the Canada-Israeli Industrial Research and Development Foundation) put companies together and help them get the needed capital and research support to build a global company. And some start as small and medium-sized ventures.
An example of this kind of partnership is the development of what must best be called ‘spy drones", an Israeli technology with a Canadian power-drive. Naturally, the Canadian Air Force has a massive coastline to monitor, and with a drone, you are working with 40 hours of endurance compared to eight hours with a traditional reconnaissance plane with a crew of two.
It has always been a bit of a mystery why everything happens so quickly when dealing with Israeli. Perhaps the only nation that compares with Israel might be South Korea. The shift from being an undeveloped nation to an economic and military powerhouse has happened so quickly in geopolitical terms.
Perhaps it is what they call in Hebrew, “Chutspah" or boldness. I could see it in my Jewish mother and her family. They just did “stuff”. Nothing about talking it over. “Just do it”, my mother would say.
And Jewish people are very tribal. They automatically work together and achieve consensus quickly. During my upbringing, I was told by all the Jewish suppliers for my father's clothing manufacturing business, that because my father married that "nice Jewish girl," they all went out of their way to help him make a success of his new business.
This might be part of the Israeli success story. While a committee with translators handling a dozen languages helps the European Union decide on a new development strategy, Israel will already have working arrangements in place with states, provinces, and corporations in North America.
And, these Israeli “Memorandums of Understanding”, as they call them, have a political dimension. They usually imply supporting Israel at the United Nations where there is a 57-member Islamic bloc of nations continuously harassing Israel.
But, on the negative side of the Israel debate are all the security issues Israel faces. I learned about this first hand during my visit to Tel Aviv in 1995. They even talked about the danger of an Arab militant coming into a school with some form of an assault rifle. Well, apparently, they have three armed guards in every school.
Just another opportunity for the US to partner with Israel. Learning how to make children safe in American schools.