points of view

Editorial

Israel-U.S . Ties Yield Mutual Dividends

A

merica is Israel's strongest
and most influential ally,
but we as a nation benefit
richly from our relationship with the
technologically savvy Jewish state.
That's the gist of an important
essay distributed by the Washington
Institute for Near East Policy.
As senior fellows David Pollock
and Michael Eisenstadt con-
vey, Israel unwittingly prepared
Massachusetts General Hospital for
the mass casualties triggered by
the Boston Marathon bombers; two
years earlier, Israel medical experts
had helped improve the hospital's
disaster-response plan.
Sure, the U.S. has invested more

than $115 billion in economic and
military support for Israel. But
Israel has been a productive part-
ner in the counterterrorism battle,
intelligence sharing and the devel-
opment of such innovations as
unmanned aerial vehicles and mis-
sile defense. Israel also has contrib-
uted to American advances in the
high-tech, medical and sustainability
sectors.
The essay argues authoritatively
how Israel's cooperation with U.S.
companies on information technol-
ogy has been an invaluable boost to
Silicon Valley. Dozens of brand-name
U.S. companies, including Intel, IBM
and Google, have opened research

and development centers in Israel
despite the dangerous Middle East
neighborhood. You only need to
consider Google's purchase of the
Israeli traffic navigation startup
Waze for a reported $1 billion to
realize that Israel's startup boon is
attractive to U.S. companies.
What is more, the 2012 Cleantech
Global Innovation Index shows that
Israel leads the world in creating
cleantech companies - which has
contributed toward American water,
food and energy security.
Sales of American consumer prod-
ucts brands have shot up, notwith-
standing boycott threats. And U.S.
exports to the Middle East climbed

to a record $56 billion in 2011.
Meanwhile, oil exports to the U.S
from most Arab countries rose or
have remained steady since 2000,
political turmoil aside.
Tension is a given between
Washington and Jerusalem in the
wake of such terror brokers as
Tehran, Al Qaida, Hamas, Hezbollah
and Islamic Jihad and even a faction
of the Palestinian Authority's gov-
erning Fatah party. Yet the alliance
between these two great democra-
cies - dating from Israeli state-
hood, through the Cold War and
amid today's violent strain of Islam
- certainly seems unshakable, as
President Obama so aptly put it.

❑

Guest Column

orison Food Never Tasted So Good

F

or years, one of my mantras has
been "Prisoners are assured of food
and shelter, yet those, who haven't
been convicted of a crime don't have that
same assurance — what is wrong with this
picture?"
This really hit home (actually, the office)
last week when I found out that prisoners
asking for kosher food receive frozen Mon
Cuisine meals while incarcerated. These
meals retail between $8.79 - $15.59 each.
David Jaffee, Yad Ezra's warehouse man-
ager, had an opportunity to buy the meals
at a greatly reduced wholesale discount
because the supplier lost his bid on the
contract with the prison system and want-
ed to unload the excess food in his freezer.
For a few weeks, our client families will
be receiving the upscale frozen entrees. As
an aside, members of Congress recently
participated in a food stamp diet challenge

that allowed them $4.50 to spend on food
per day, or $31.50 for the week. To put this
into perspective: Two salmon Mon Cuisine
dinners cost $30; way more than some-
one on SNAP (Supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program,
formerly known as food
stamps) can afford, assuming
they want to eat more than
two meals over the course of
a week.
I remember Auggie
Fernandes, former Gleaners
CEO, telling me the story of
how he was walking through
Eastern Market one morn-
ing in search of a place to
have breakfast when he saw a
homeless person panhandling for change.
Auggie offered to buy the man breakfast,
but the man declined. Auggie persevered,

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June 27 • 2013

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telling the man he could join him at the
diner down the street if he changed his
mind. After 15 minutes, the homeless man
walked into the restaurant and sat down
at Auggie's table. Auggie, being
the friendly, compassionate and
inquisitive person that he is,
asked the man about his life. The
man told him that he had recent-
ly been released from jail and
couldn't find a job or a place to
live. No one would hire him; he
had no money and no family to
help him. He was very frustrated
and did not know where to turn.
He told Auggie that he was seri-
ously considering committing
another crime because at least he
would then have food and shelter.
So, while Michigan prisoners who keep
kosher enjoy evening dinners of stuffed
cabbage, rib-eye roast, roasted chicken
and other delights, 3,000 non-incarcerated
residents in our community don't have the
security of knowing where and when their
next meal will come. The founders of Yad
Ezra, our state's only kosher food pantry,
recognized early on that monthly SNAP
benefits did not cover the cost of an indi-
vidual's meals. Our kosher food pantry has
been providing free kosher food, toiletries
and household items for 23 years to help
ensure that no one suffers from food inse-
curity or deprivation.
Although the Farm Bill, which includes
15 major sections covering everything
from government support of crops, live-
stock, nutrition, trade and agriculture
research to food assistance programs such
as SNAP and the school lunch program,
went down in defeat last week in the House
of Representatives, lawmakers continue to

debate its final resolution.
SNAP provides basic sustenance for peo-
ple who are food insecure. Eighty percent
of the dollars included in the Farm Bill
are allocated to SNAP, which kept 5 mil-
lion people above the poverty line in 2010.
One in seven Americans currently receives
SNAP benefits.
Current proposals in the House of
Representatives are to cut $20 billion
from the Farm Bill, and their counterparts
in the Senate are looking to cut $4.1 bil-
lion from the SNAP budget. As Americans
and Jews, we have to speak up for those
whose voices aren't heard. We understand
the budget pressures faced by our govern-
ment, but we cannot allow our legislators
to balance the federal budget on the backs
of the most vulnerable Americans.
Please contact Congress and tell them
not to allow these cuts to SNAP. After all,
we're not encouraging people to commit
crimes and end up in jail so that they can
have food security, or are we?

❑

Lea Luger is executive director of Berkley-

based Yad Ezra, Michigan's only kosher food

pantry.

Contacts

Sen. Carl Levin
senator@levin.senate.gov

Sen. Debbie Stabenow
senator@stabenow.senate.gov

Congressman Gary Peters
Rep.Peters@mail.house.gov

Congressman Sandy Levin
Replevin@mail.house.gov