Sorry to break it to major Zionist organizations – who have transformed themselves into defenders of Israel’s every sneeze – but Zionism is a hackneyed, well-traveled ideology that long ago achieved its central goal of creating a Jewish state.
Fortunately, something has come in its stead, something American Jews need to pay more attention to. Once you get beyond the headlines of political, military and cultural strife, Israelis and Jews around the world are teaming up to change the world for the better – just like we always said we were supposed to.
In fact, if the early Zionist dream in the first decades of the 20th century was to make the dessert bloom, in the second decade of the 21st century the emerging vision is one of making the air cleaner – in the process setting a remarkable example for the entire planet.
That’s because it’s not in place such as California’s Silicon Valley, but those such as Israel’s Jezreel Valley where the world’s focus is turning for green news these days. As such, the State of Israel is helping boost a nascent industry that President Barack Obama has said is much-needed across the globe to create an economic engine of future jobs and revenues.
The latest chapter in this evolving story came with this week’s announcement by Israeli-American entrepreneur Shai Agassi’s that the latest financing round for his electric car company, Better Place (http://www.betterplace.com/), brought in another $350 million. That brings the total investment to $1.25 billion. As the 41-year-old entrepreneur told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, “This is the largest investment since the [global economic] crash in 2008 and the largest investment ever in clean-tech.” Frankly, that’s breathtaking.
Mr. Agassi’s plan goes like this: Drivers will recharge their car batteries every 100 miles or so at one of 70 special stations placed throughout Israel’s road systems. When pulling in, a robotic device will remove the empty battery and insert a full one. Total time: two minutes. Meanwhile, customers will not spend their day hunting for “10 cents off on Tuesdays” specials at various stations. That’s because they will pay a flat fee for electricity cost.
The project should be fully operation by the second half of next year. The infrastructure is estimated to cost the company about $150 million, meaning the company hopes to return the investment within 18 months.
Most of all, it is another example of how the Jewish state’s know how can combine with American investors to lead the world in safe and environmentally sound technologies. That’s worth bragging about.
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