The lake
in the image on this page is an optical
illusion created by an over zealous photographer. It is no more than a small
reservoir that serves to collect runoff surface water. However, everything else
in the photograph is life size and real. The
industrial installation is the factory where I work and where our
breakfast parliament convenes. The mountain in the background is Mount
Gilboa
and the reservoir is in the field across the road. The same field I mention
from time to time. The factory, Ricor Cryogenic and Vacuum Systems, started 45
years ago as a very small subsidiary of Palbam, Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud's
stainless steel kitchen equipment plant. The mother company, once the mainstay
of Ein Harod's economy has had to adapt to changes in a very competitive
market. Ricor has fared better. It functions as a separate entity and today it
is one of the world's largest cryogenic cooler manufacturers. Ricor's cryogenic
coolers are sold mainly to defence industries in Israel and abroad, however
they have a number of lesser-known civilian applications too. An article published in Yediot Ahronot last week revealed that Ricor has a stake in the NASA Mars mission. The
"Curiosity" rover exploring a specific area on the surface of Mars is
equipped with a "made in Israel"
component. The interface of the CheMin system (chemicals and minerals)
installed in the craft's laboratory equipment is cooled to -173°C by a miniature
cryogenic cooler. The cooler designed to NASA's specifications was manufactured
by Ricor. You can view the newspaper article by opening the hyperlink below:
There are a few
inaccuracies in the article, nevertheless, none of them detract from the vital
role the cooler plays in the analysis of
dust and rock samples collected on Mars.
Ricor markets and services
its products in the U.S.
through “Ricor USA” at Nashua, New
Hampshire. “RicorSolar” a promising startup
spawned by Ricor Cryogenic & Vacuum
Systems in 2009 is engaged in developing
and manufacturing Solar Stirling engines.
Back on earth, Israel’s ongoing verbal conflict with Iran
hasn’t abated at all.
This week Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic summed up the latest
round as follows: "It has been a tumultuous couple of weeks in the
Iran-Israel War, and it hasn't even started yet.
Over the past few days, Iranian leaders have promised Israel's coming destruction about
half a dozen times, and have gotten so overheated they've begun to mix
metaphors: There has been much talk about wiping the cancerous tumor of Zionism
from the map, and so on. The Iranians' language has become sufficiently
genocidal that even the secretary-general of the United Nations, not generally known as a hotbed
of Zionist feeling, said he was 'dismayed by the remarks threatening Israel's
existence.'
Israel's leaders are also 'dismayed.' But their
dismay is prompted by something much deeper than rhetoric. They understand that
much of the civilized world is prepared to live with a nuclear Iran,
and they harbor seemingly ineradicable fears that President Barack Obama,
and his Western allies, might secretly be willing to do the same.
The Israelis -- Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in
particular -- have been suggesting to the news media these past two weeks that
the time is nearly at hand for a strike on Iran's nuclear sites."
Describing the latest
developments Goldberg said,
"President Shimon Peres crossed the line into overt political interference
last week when he said that Israel
'cannot do it alone.' He went on, 'It is clear to us that we have to proceed
together with America."
The
casual onlooker will no doubt take Peres' opinion as a sincere expression of
concern for the outcome of a potentially explosive situation. However, some
political commentators have hinted that Shimon Peres, once a wily politician is
part and parcel of the "Israel
bluff." They
say he is playing the "good cop" role. I think that theory is too
farfetched True to form, we are always
looking for a scapegoat. Brisbane
Times columnist Paul McGeough says, "Some
in Israel have taken to
blaming Obama for not saving Israel
from itself. He quotes from Ari Shavit's
article in Haaretz
(mentioned last week): "The key to
preventing disaster is … in the hands of the US President. His most important
speech is the one he has not made so far - the Iran speech." Namely, a clear,
unequivocal statement promising to attack Iran if it starts
"weaponizing."
McGeough reasons, "Yes,
Obama is running for re-election, and it is hard to leave Ohio and Florida.
But a trip to Israel
-- a place he hasn't visited as president -- would put Iran
on notice that Obama is deadly serious about thwarting their plans. "
“Until recently, I have always been sceptical about the idea that Israel will stage a unilateral attack on Iran’s nuclear
facilities. But, in recent months, I’ve changed my mind, because so many people
I know who follow the issue much more closely than me, seem convinced that it
will indeed happen.” Said columnist/blogger Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times. Although
few of the people Rachman quotes are mentioned by name I don’t disregard his
conclusions.
He says his change of mind was brought about by conversations with, “A senior British defence official, one of the
best think-tank analysts, Mark Fitzpatrick of the IISS; another top
think-tanker from the US.
Most recently, a French diplomat who deals with the Iran dossier, told me that he
expected an Israeli attack within weeks.” “ By comparison,” he says,” I’ve met
relatively few people who follow the issue closely, who discount the possibility
of an Israeli attack. One friend at the State Department in Washington told me he regards the Israelis
as ’complete bullshitters’– and does not believe their threats to stage a
unilateral attack. But he seems to be a minority voice.”
Rachman’s change of mind appears to be incomplete,” Still, there is one
thing that gives me pause. Any Israeli government that gave the order for a
unilateral attack would not just be taking an enormous security risk. The
evidence suggests that they would also be taking a big domestic political
gamble. A new poll from the Israel Democracy
Institute, published by Haaretz, shows just 27% of Israelis support a
unilateral strike on Iran’s
nuclear facilities.
If Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli PM, believes his own argument that
stopping the Iranian nuclear programme is a matter of national survival, then
he might just ignore public opinion. But Netanyahu is also a politician. And
those polls might yet sway him.”
On Sunday I visited a few out of the way places on a trip to the Golan Heights.
My brother-in-law works in quarry reclamation programmes supervised by
the Israel Lands Administration. Worked out quarries in Israel, the West Bank and the Golan
Heights are converted to recreational sites. Usually the site's
topography determines the particular reclamation plan and its purpose.
Many exhausted quarries are turned into parks, often with an open-air theatre set
in an excavated rock face. The companies that work the quarries pay a
reclamation tax based on the volume of rock excavated. The money levied by the
tax is paid into a fund for the reclamation work carried out at a later date.
Local authorities also
participate in funding the reclamation work.
The Israel Lands
Administration is also responsible for planning and supervising the construction of water conservation works.
Driving across the Golan Heights we passed a
number of reservoirs constructed for conserving surface water. In many places
on the Golan Heights the soil has a high clay
content. As a result large volume of the
surface water doesn't seep through the soil to fill the aquifers. A third of
the water flowing into the Sea of Galilee comes from streams flowing from the Golan Heights. A chain of 20 reservoirs linked across the
Golan Heights has increased water
conservation significantly.
Six years ago a large
reservoir was constructed close to the border with Syria near the Kuneitra border crossing.
From a distance we could clearly make
out the expanse of water, the ruins of Kuneitra destroyed in the Yom Kippur War and
the mountain range in the background, strangely reminiscent of our local
reflection in the pond.
Have a good weekend
Beni
23rd
of August, 2012.
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