Opinion

While everyone's busy
debating stem cells, we're busy
producing results.

While the stem cell debate rages,
scientists at the Technion-Israel
Institute of Technology are
using this important science
to advance medicine and
save lives.

they help regulate its activity, in effect
becoming a biological pacemaker.
Eventually, this could eliminate
mechanical pacemakers,
which require surgery to
replace the battery every
few years, and could
replace damaged cells
in patients who have
had heart attacks.

Technion research-
ers have turned
embryonic stem cells
into insulin produc-
ing cells for treating
diabetes,and into muscle
and blood vessel cells for
future replacement parts. They
are successfully growing stem cells
into beating heart muscle, which is
already being used to test new drugs
and to study the effects of stresses on
the heart.

Technion scientists are
also developing special cell
lines that can address one of
the most significant challenges
of stem cell technology—how to coax
more of the cells to develop into spe-
cific types that are needed— say heart
or nerve cells. The American Technion
Society is proud to be a partner in
these efforts. With your help, we can
ensure that Israel's scientists continue
shaping a stronger Israel and a better,
safer world.

Most recently, Technion researchers
have shown that stem cells can be in-
tegrated into a damaged heart, where

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Israel from page A27

needs to revisit its balance sheet
and take a hard look at its assets,
its liabilities and its priorities.
Changing imperatives demand
that we administer our opera-
tions more efficiently and target
our resources to our own press-
ing Jewish needs. That does not
mean we retreat from our Jewish
homeland and haven. We cannot
forsake the Israel Defense Forces,
Magen David Adorn, Hadassah,
Technion-Israel Institute of
Technology, Bar-Ilan University,
American Israel Public Affairs
Committee, Zionist Organization
of America and all the other
critical organizations that pump
so much of the lifeblood of Israeli
society.
Sure, it hurts us all to see our
college grads relocate outside
of Michigan; it must hurt so
much more to see your 18-year-
old relocated to the borders of
Lebanon and Gaza or into the
cockpit of an F-16. We cannot
begin to know the pain of Israelis
suffering unfathomable loss
and trauma as the price paid for
merely existing as a Jewish state.

Ties That Bind
What Mr. Horwitz over-
looked is that we can fulfill our
moral obligations to Jews here
and in Israel by capitalizing on
our interconnectedness. Even if
we were to ignore the emotional,
religious, historic and cultural
ties that bind us to Israel, it is in
Michigan's best interests to up
our ante in Israel. We should flex
our influence as generous donors
to state universities, political
officeholders, medical institu-
tions, etc., to establish partner-
ships with Israel. With its record-
setting pace of R&D, patent
licensing, medical breakthroughs,
NASDAQ listings, computer inno-
vations, alternative energy and
"green" technologies — not to
mention its unrivalled expertise
in first-response, security and
counter-terrorism — you almost
wonder why Michigan hasn't cap-
italized upon the compelling
strategic fit with Israel.
Michigan's two greatest assets
are its fresh water supply and
powerhouse universities. Israel's
prowess in intellectual capital
and water technology is the
turbine to drive this economic
synergy. Indeed, this very para-

dox of geography and resources
— Michigan lapped by the Great
Lakes and Israel blooming in the
dessert — can yield mutually
promising partnerships to devel-
op strong economic growth and
environmental sustainability.
As California Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger proclaimed on
a 2004 trip to Israel: "There are
so many brilliant people in this
country and they're so innova-
tive that — working together
with California — I think we can
really create jobs, businesses and
revenues.
Thousands of jobs have been
created in the burgeoning trade
between California and Israel.
California is the fourth-largest
U.S. exporter to Israel. States
like Ohio, Florida and Virginia
have also realized the high
returns of investing in Israeli
collaboration. So have business
tycoons like Warren Buffet and
cutting-edge giants Microsoft
and Intel. We can all proudly
recite the contributions made by
Israel to world progress.
We know our public univer-
sities have been ambitiously
developing joint ventures in the
Arab world and in Asia; it is
high time Michigan aggressively
pursues Israeli know-how and
entrepreneurship to catalyze a
turnaround in our state.
Just weeks ago, this paper
lamented the results of a study
revealing the emotional discon-
nect between young American
Jews and Israel. Surely, the Jewish
News does not want to contribute
to this troubling disassociation.
The very suggestion that Detroit
Jewry should scale back its com-
mitment to Israel is more discon-
certing coming from you than
calls for divestment from Israel's
detractors. For once Jews start a
process of divesting financially
from Israel, emotional divest-
ment is sure to follow.
We dare not feed into our
enemies' designs to divide us
and conquer us. We must stand
strong in solidarity with our fel-
low Jews in Israel and throughout
the diaspora for it is only with a
united purpose and will that we
will survive.

Both Linda Stulberg and Eva Mames

are Oakland County residents.

