Israel hi-tech is in every U.S. fighter jet and helps America fight its war on terror, says Lt. Col. Chris Sheppard, the American F-16 mission commander in one of several videos prepared by AIPAC for its annual conference.
Israeli technology, ranging from defense systems to innovative medical equipment, also has helped save lives in the U.S. war on terror as well as saving American civilians and soldiers.
The United States is fighting a new kind of enemy that uses guerilla tactics “and operates in populated areas,” according to Sheppard. “Israeli technology has greatly enhanced today’s battlefield, a prime example of that is embodied in the lightning targeting system” that is on almost every F-16 jet, he adds.
Ambassador Jon Glassman, former charge d’affaires in Afghanistan, comments that “the ability of the lightning rod striking at the terrorist in a crowded and cluttered environment where people could be hurt otherwise is absolutely crucial. Israeli technology has made a difference and that difference has saved lives.”
Another outstanding contribution to saving lives has been made by Brooklyn-born Israel Bernard bar-Natan, who was an IDF medic for 22 years.
He notes that 80 percent of preventable combat deaths were caused by uncontrolled bleeding and that the concept of bandages essentially has not changed since World War II – until he developed a revolutionary sterile wound treatment.
It applies high pressure that stops bleeding immediately. “We gave it to an American Special Forces unit in Afghanistan, and the product proved itself. It is contained in every medic kit in the U.S. military,” he says.
The same bandage was one of several advancements that was credited for saving the life of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who along with a dozen others was shot outside a supermarket in Arizona last year.
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One of several videos presented at the annual AIPAC policy conference this week shows how the United States and Israel collaborate on green energy projects. Israel has instituted green energy awareness in the IDF , agriculture, local government and the classroom.
Representative Steve Israel from New York championed a joint U.S.-Israel energy cooperation program, and he says he’s “on a mission to position the United States and Israel together in exploring new sources of energy.”
One way in which Israel and America work together, according to the video, is by using cutting edge Israeli to transform California’s Mojave Desert into an energy oasis that will provide power to 140,000 homes.
The Israeli system utilizes 100,000 mirrors and is able to produce electricity even during cloudy conditions and at night.
Israel is also a leader intechnology and one of the leading companies in this field is TaKaDu, which is on the Dow Jones’ list of top clean technology start-ups in the world.
“People don’t realize it, but the water sector in any country in the western world is the biggest consumer of energy,” explained Amir Peleg, founder and CEO of TaKaDu. “TaKaDu is a company that uses mathematics and computer science in order to find leaks and bursts in water networks. We detect them, classify them, and alert the municipality that something is wrong and it is losing water and energy.”
Major cities in the world are now using TaKaDu’s technology to save water and energy.
And, of course, one cannot speak of green technology without mentioning Shai Agassi and his company Better Place, which converts countries into electric car-powered countries by building a new infrastructure that powers electric vehicles. Using electric vehicle technology eliminates the need to fill up cars with oil and significantly decreases the time required to “refuel” a vehicle.
The U.S. and Israel cooperate in this technology as well. When then San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom met Agassi, the two initiated a pilot program for Agassi’s technology in San Francisco’s taxis.
