Israel Embraces Green Energy

Ann Arbor

T

he Middle East is the apex of
global crude oil extraction, yet
a country with no petroleum
deposits — Israel — is emerging as the
region's leader in alternative fuel research
and production.
How, you ask? Jatropha.
Neither a mind-altering substance nor
a household-cleaning product, Jatropha
is an African perennial plant with seeds
that contain up to 35 percent vegetable
oil. Why have we never heard of it? The oil
extraction method is secret. And the firm
with the coveted extraction patent, Galten
Global Alternative Energy Co., is based in
Israel.
To compare the Jatropha plant to other
sources of biofuel, Galten's Web site asserts
that only one ton of biofuel can be extract-
ed from 2.5 acres of edible crops like
corn or soybeans — as opposed to three
tons of biofuel from the same amount of
Jatropha.
Since 2006, Galten has become an
integral member of Israel's diverse and
brilliant arena of green technology com-
panies. Galten joins industry leaders

OrganiTECH, now manufactur-
ing the Jatropha plants. We've
ing self-operating greenhouses
built a nursery, but it's not
easy in Africa." Levi explained
that produce pesticide-free
green leaf vegetables; Project
that the poisonous bush snake
Better Place, currently designing
also enjoys the benefits of the
and building a charging grid
Jatropha plant, through shade
for electric cars; and Mekorot,
and cover from the harsh
Israel's leading water technology
African sun.
company. To be successful, how-
Snakes scare me, so I sym-
ever, these companies rely heav-
pathize with Galten's engineers
Ari P arritz
on the ground, but I'm confi-
ily on exporting their products
Corm nunity
and producing abroad.
dent that Galten can solve its
V iew
Because Israel inhabits
snake problems to focus on
only a tiny fraction of land
its ultimate goal: eliminating
in the Middle East — and its
Israel's dependence on Arab oil.
agricultural regions are already densely
On Oct. 22, crude oil prices dropped
populated — Galten chose to develop its
below $65 per barrel. Though OPEC
technologies in a foreign country with two (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
important advantages: 1) more expend-
Countries) is now scrambling for a solu-
able land area and 2) a native supply of
tion, Israel is silently smiling — for good
Jatropha. Galten selected Ghana as its
reason. Many years of cultivating alterna-
nursery for Jatropha production, and has
tive fuel technology, it seems, are begin-
already leased more than a half-million
ning to pay extraordinary dividends.
acres of land in the country.
In an Israeli news op/ed earlier this year
Though the political climate in Ghana
titled "Beyond the Oil Age Sarah Kass,
is relatively stable, Galten's project is not
the director of strategy and evaluation at
without its obstacles. According to Doron
the Avi Chai Foundation, noted that the
Levi, the chief operating officer of Galten,
most important geopolitical event in the
"We are working according to plan grow-
region 60 years ago was not the creation

-

of the State of Israel. Rather, "It was the
discovery and cultivation, then, and the
commercialization, since then, of the hot
ocean of oil beneath the sands of Arabia!'
Post-World War II, according to Kass,
"Mideast oil began to dominate the world
strategic landscape'
Today, the vast majority of Arab-world
GDP stems from oil exports. Though each
Arab country spends its oil revenues dif-
ferently, only one spending strategy truly
benefits Arab citizens: domestic reinvest-
ment of oil revenues into human capital
and infrastructure. The United Arab
Emirates employs this strategy widely,
especially in Dubai, yet most other Arab
states are content to hoard oil revenues for
the wealthiest ruling class — or to invest
them in terrorist organizations, nuclear
projects or weapons imports.
Though Iran is not an Arab state, it
plays an important role as a major power
in the Mideast oil hegemony. Its influence
reaches every state in the region, and its
oil revenues sponsor internationally rec-
ognized terrorists groups Hezbollah and
Islamic Jihad. Fortunately, plunging oil
prices have shocked and disrupted Iran's
Israel on page A34

Remembering Kristallnacht

New York

0

n Nov. 9-10, we mark the 70th
anniversary of Kristallnacht,
the "night of broken glass."
Rampaging mobs, spurred by the Nazi
leadership, attacked Jewish targets
throughout Germany and Austria. The
damage was immense.
Hundreds of synagogues were burned to
the ground. Thousands of Jewish-owned
businesses were ransacked.
Nearly 100 Jews were murdered in cold
blood. And tens of thousands of Jews were
arrested and deported to concentration
camps.
Their crime? They were Jews. It was as
simple as that.
The second World War had not yet
officially begun. That would start on
Sept. 1, 1939, not quite 10 months after
Kristallnacht.
But the Nazi war against the Jews was
already well under way. The goal was to
rid Germany, Austria, and, eventually, all
of Nazi-occupied Europe of Jews.

The Nazis almost succeeded.
still a chance to escape.
By the war's end in 1945, 6
We remember that our own
million Jews, or two-thirds of
country, the United States,
European Jewry, had been anni-
yielding to domestic isola-
hilated. And ancient centers of
tionism and anti-Semitism,
Jewish civilization, from Vilna
did far less than it could
to Salonika, from Amsterdam to
have to offer a safe haven to
Prague, had been all but wiped
Europe's Jews.
out.
We remember that in the
On this tragic anniversary,
same fateful year, 1938,
and every day, we remember.
prior to Kristallnacht,
David A.
We remember the Jews of
Nazi Germany had moved
Harris
Germany and Austria, who
with impunity into the
Special
had contributed so greatly to
Sudetenland, then part of
Commentary
their homelands in every way
Czechoslovakia, and Austria
imaginable and who became the
with barely a peep from the
targets of a genocidal policy.
international community.
We remember the vibrant lives of
We remember that just weeks before
Jewish communities across Europe that
Kristallnacht, the British prime minister,
were extinguished in the flames of the
Neville Chamberlain, traveled to Germany
Holocaust.
for the third time in two weeks and
We remember the 1.5 million Jewish
returned to London to assure the British
children murdered in the Nazi pursuit of
public that there would be "peace for our
the so-called Final Solution.
time."
We remember how many borders were
We remember the valiant forces of the
closed to Europe's Jews when there was
Allied nations that ultimately destroyed

the Nazi Reich and saved the world from
Adolf Hitler's boast of a thousand-year
reign.
We remember the military cemeteries
across Europe, and beyond, filled with the
graves of young soldiers who fought with
such courage and bravery to defeat Nazi
Germany and its allies.
And we remember the examples of
those few countries and those few indi-
viduals who, at such risk to themselves,
sought to shield Jews from harm.
Kristallnacht reminds us that there is a
slippery slope from the demonization of a
people, to the dehumanization of a people,
to the destruction of a people.
And Kristallnacht reminds us that,
in the face of evil against fellow human
beings, silence can never be an option or
indifference a strategy.
The American Jewish Committee remem-
bers today, as we remembered yesterday
and as we shall remember tomorrow.

❑

David A. Harris is executive director of the

American Jewish Committee.

November 6 2008

A33

