MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — Wisconsin’s Lieutenant Governor refers to her recent trip to Israel as eye opening. Rebecca Kleefisch led a delegation of seven Lieutenant Governors from several states recently to learn about security issues, discuss economic development opportunities, and learn more about their culture.
Kleefisch says there was, “Nothing boring or tourist-y about my mission to Israel.” She says the group set out to do more than make some business connections. “We were able to do some economic development meetings with individual states, but I also wanted folks to be able to come away with an extraordinary diplomatic and geopolitical trip, as we know that there is no better place in the world to get that experience than in Israel.”
Israel is surrounded by countries that don’t like them. Kleefisch says they were able to see first-hand the sites where cultures collide and conflicts have begun. “We spent a day in the West Bank, half day in the Golan Heights, and another half day on the Gaza border, and then finally, we wanted to make sure that we had the finest cultural education that an eight-day trip could afford anyone.”
Kleefisch says one area of economic opportunity for Wisconsin is in water technology. Israel has developed desalination tools to supply fresh drinking water to the country using ocean water. She says Israel could work with a Wisconsin based group that is also expanding clean water technology. “You have entree into the domestic American market in Wisconsin through the Global Water Center, and in order to build economic development ties, we wanted to make sure that they understood that the best way to approach the American market for freshwater technology is to go through Wisconsin.”
Israel is working to get more people into the job market, but Kleefisch says they don’t have the same skills gap we do in Wisconsin. She says part of that is because every high school graduate takes a different path than American graduates. “For women, for two years after high school, and for men, three years after high school, all Israeli citizens go into the military, essentially. Everyone in the country is a reservist until the age of fifty-something for men and then twenty-four for women.”
Israelis learn many skills in the military they carry on after service is complete.
Israel also has what are called lone soldiers, which come from other countries to serve the Israeli military, if they have a parent or grandparent originally from Israel. One such soldier is a young Wisconsin woman. Kleefisch says she had just graduated from basic training and was about to begin her work as a search and rescue instructor.
The American delegation met with soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces and the commanders allowed them to explore the tunnels where they do counterterrorism training.
