California has been going through a catastrophic drought for three years now, which has cost the state’s economy at least $2.2 billion and left 500,000 acres of what was once rich, productive farmland fallow.

Prof. Eilon Adar (r), director of the Negev’s Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research with colleagues at Ben-Gurion University. – Photo: Dani Machlis/BGU

So where did California turn to for help? Not the Obama White House, but to Israel, the world’s acknowledged expert on irrigation and water use.

California’s Governor Jerry Brown has just signed a strategic cooperation Agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to receive aid from Israel.

Prof. Eilon Adar, a world expert in groundwater flow systems, will work to help the state work out solutions to the issue. Prof. Adar visited San Fransisco and Silicon Valley, touring desalination plants in northern California, and participating in a state-wide conference in which a slew of possibly technological solutions were presented.

“If we managed to overcome the water issues in the Middle East, we can do it anywhere in the world,” Prof. Adar said. “Nonetheless, (to address the issue) they will need to improve the management and efficiency of the water market and increase and optimize the coordination between the water companies.”

He’s got that right. Israel is the only country in the entire Middle East that is self sufficient in water. And they did it themselves, in a hostile environment.

“We are pushing ahead with the water issue and branding Israel as part of the solution, an ally with the know how whom can come to help in a time of need,” said Andy David, Israel’s consul to California.

I hope California’s Democrats remember whom their friends are when it comes to voting on President Obama’s anti-Israel, pro ‘Palestine’ agenda. An Israel pushed back to indefensible borders and under attack isn’t going to be much help to the world in situations like these.

View original Israel Today publication at: http://www.israeltoday.co.il/NewsItem/tabid/178/nid/25467/Default.aspx