Future of Energy Sourcing, Innovative Agriculture, & Israel's Water Surplus | Insights on TBN Israel

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] shalom and welcome to insights israel and the middle east we're here to connect the dots between the land the bible and current events energy is not a luxury it's a necessity especially in a country like israel where our office is built around a startup nation if you want algorithms to run if you want computers to run you need power it needs power so iran we're at the heart of the beast and this is what sets this station apart from other stations yes you hit the jackpot and it's transformed the region my children your children's children that will reap the benefit of this absolutely so this is ground zero huh we won't live by our sword but we will live with our sword we'll be on the guard all the time you'll see the flags when you come in be the israel flag the texas flag and of course the us of a you know people always think about natural gas coal but this here is the future everything that you're describing is to bring god glory it's not for money it's not for power it's not for personal gain it's to show the world that god is faithful to his word and i'm looking at that i'm saying that is a hugely powerful testament they said the land would not lack anything oil isn't anything so it wouldn't lack it [Music] when we think about the miracle of the return of the jewish people to the land if there's one thing that we all understand is that the people of israel arrived to a place where there was nothing it was a desolate country and today 70 years later we see a country that leads in many technologies but especially in energy the bible tells us to be a light to the nation by presenting the messiah of israel to the nation but also to be a light in technology and today israel is a source of energy to egypt to jordan to the country around us so let us watch together the miracle of energy in the land of israel [Applause] pretty much everything we do in everyday life depends on one thing available energy and for us in israel the concept or the idea of being dependent on our neighbors for our available energy is something quite unsettling we have to be able to stand alone on our own resources in this country as a christian zionist and a new covenant believer isaiah 65 1 the calling to render assistance to the jewish people in the nation of israel and to help the people of israel maintain their political and economic independence coal fuel oil all came over to israel via containers none of its neighbors would supply energy it's expensive it's highly polluting israel truly needs any industrial nation needs to not be dependent on other countries that's why we're here geologist at the time said it's conceivable that there is gas down there god called me and sent me there i didn't know how or why i just knew that i'm supposed to help them find your until you drill you don't really know it all i know is i'm just going to do what he says do he tells me do something i'm doing it [Music] you know when you think about it you really can't run a modern-day economy without available fuel and gas i mean for this car specifically but also for israel at large because we're an island economy we have a large defense force we need to have ongoing and available fuel and gas in this country during the arab spring in 2011 the natural gas pipeline from egypt to israel was blown up not one not two but four separate times leaving israel desperate for a reliable source of energy in the 1970s regional instability caused the kosovo to spike more dramatically than ever before in history this impacted the global economy and especially the united states energy independence is hugely important for any country but in israel it's a necessity [Music] we're here because delic and other companies have discovered a huge huge amount of gas of natural gas uh just out that way if it's been there for so long and no one knew it was there yeah there's clearly some kind of like magic or genius that went into the process i don't know if a genius but like a mix of science and guts and some belief in the turn of the century and noble made two modest size discoveries the first discovery it was about 1 billion cubic meters enough to supply about a year or so of a gas demand here in israel shortly after the mary b field was discovered and that's a much more significant feel that basically started natural gas here in israel but in 2009 we made a much more significant discovery which was tomorrow and that's close to 13 tcf okay so that for decades a lot of gas a lot of gas and then a year after we discovered leviathan and that's twice as large so six seven decades in current consumption rates this was a three billion dollar project but when they talk about future projections of what it's going to do to our economy it's it's enormous even five years ago no one in their right mind would have thought that israel is going to export petroleum to neighbors we're now actively exporting to egypt and to jordan from leviathans that's really significant uh not only from an energy perspective but like geopolitical perspective that's huge the discovery of natural gas turned the tides for israel making us not only energy independent but a global powerhouse in the energy sector still natural gas alone is not enough the world today very much depends on oil which has yet to be discovered in israel but with a little faith all things are possible what our way to meet uh jeffrey who's the israeli ceo for zion oil and gas this is an american-based company and we're going to meet him in the betjan valley this is sort of through the jordan valley in the northern part of israel this is a very promising site for finding or oil or gas uh right inside of israel hey this is it huh monty how you doing man good good whoops this is the place huh this is it this is it here we are this is our drilling pad this is all happened where it happened and it will happen we're standing here inside the jordan valley or right next to the jordan valley we're standing on a dirt pad it seems like there's been a lot of work done here this is a drilling pan for early drilling operations you have to have a pad that you see right here okay a few years ago oh yeah there wasn't a centimeter here pretty well that wasn't covered with equipment we took upon ourselves to conduct a 3d survey 72 kilometers first time and what is that first time in israel what does it show what's six kilometers under where you're standing right now right and that's why we're here right now because we are on the verge of drilling our new well right here our founder john brown right none of us would be here right now if it wasn't for him okay had the vision and uh we've been drilling actively since uh 2005 that's 15 years [Music] john thank you again for taking the time maybe as a first question you can start with just sharing the backstory of why you founded zion oil and gas well see years ago god told me the right division it's and have a cook two two and three it's clear it says right division it will come to pass so you have to be persistent and i didn't know at that point it was a 39 year journey i thought it was a six month deal we're going to go over there and get the oil i didn't know there was a journey a faith journey that i was gonna have to face but that was i was a new believer and i thought i was so enthusiastic because i mean i had god talk to me man you know and that changed my whole life so you know i left my job down there you know and took off to israel it's when i went there is when god gave me that vision at the hotel in tel aviv it's all there his blessing of jacob because all you got to do is read it get the blessings on the head of joseph we're on the head of joseph of menashe exactly where he told us the oil was is there jeffrey do you believe we're going to find oil here i mean i'm looking around there's the borders on our east on our north our enemies we just saw what happened in beirut we know what's going further north with isis and what happened in syria these are our neighbors you don't choose your neighbors we are a country that have to have our own resources the world is going on to renewable and everything such that's not going to happen tomorrow israel truly needs any industrial nation needs to have and not be dependent on other countries we did have a huge fund in the mediterranean offshore right but there are security problems with that if and when we have a discovery here this will be onshore right it'll be much better protected so that's why we're here so this would be a tool in that direction absolutely we've been blessed with an enormous supply of natural gas and the discovery of oil looks like it could be just around the corner as we look to the future we are turning to another nearly unlimited source of energy that has existed since the creation of the universe [Music] so you get to call this place uh home every single day huh yeah it is it is it's our second home yeah this is the place so this is it this is the power plant yeah this is shalim plote interesting as you can see this is like a valley of renewable energy in israel [Music] looking into the future this is one sample of where the country is going it's a very huge area we are able to absorb the sun radiation free energy radiation and this is sort of like the solar valley of israel i mean you have the three main technologies for harvesting energy from the sun can you sort of break down how each one works we can see we have the pv we have the trough and we also have here a storage which contains the heat in the night when when the sunlight goes down fascinating so as i mentioned this is the drive parlor this is the let's say the the machine this is the engine that moves it yeah the trough track the sun knows where the sun should be every minute and it goes from the morning to the sunset this is one arm there's another engine for the other arm exactly and we just heard it sort of pivot and rotate here did it again he knows that he needs to rotate because he's doing a correction every few seconds just to see that he's in the middle of the sun it's amazing that this is a jerusalem-based technology here from israel that's now being used across the world yeah you're right so this is called the test this is thermal energy storage this is what sets this station apart from other stations yes you have this like buffer of of stored energy that keeps going and keeps going even when the sun is down exactly so all in all this part the traditional part this is just a regular power plant correct this part is where the magic is because you're just inputting heat into a system correct that's the same as any power plant the difference is one you're getting it from the sun it doesn't cost any money and two you have a reserve that's charging when you have a surplus of energy so you can keep running when that energy source is gone correct and all of that without having to input any additional energy you know the sun it's just endless available energy and the way you guys have harnessed it and connected it to all the different technologies is truly remarkable but it also shows how much future there is for this technology israel's founding fathers knew that energy independence is necessary for the continuation and survival of israel and the jewish people decades later our efforts continue with no signs of slowing down the whole idea was there was no oil in israel and the first thing i saw in deuteronomy was that land would not lack anything oil isn't anything [Music] so it wouldn't lack it as believers we put our hope in god knowing that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the assurance of things unseen we're expecting that we have here a lot of new projects in israel we're energy independent and second we're exporting and that's a big boon for israel when god put me in zion oil and gas i had me created people would ask me about this oil and i'd tell them you know and it seemed like there was always a blank look on her face i would have made in 1981 when i got saved 200 000 a year you know how i wound up in 12 years working in a baptist church cleaning toilets for five dollars an hour remember the brook that god sent elijah to he sent the ravens to feed them he said i'm going to send you to the brook in other words you go sit and wait john and when it comes time then you're going to move when it's my time this entire place is going to be filled with all the drilling equipment and then we're going to drill and we are encouraged that we're going to have a discovery obviously it's going to be a huge impact on israel it's a privilege to be living in this country today and to be able to specifically drill for oil and gas in israel loss of words every promise that he made is going to keep now because we get tired of waiting don't mean anything [Music] with us today we have somebody very very special doctor colonel iran leoman he was the deputy director of national security council for the prime minister shalom and welcome to our studio here let me first of all remind uh our viewers our viewers that uh our late prime minister great golden golden may used to pull uh the tale of the great prophet moses she used to great great leader prophet lousy navigator 40 years in the desert we end up in the only part of the region which has no oil well turns out moses knew more than she did because we do have quite a lot of energy but it's offshore you open the sea you go down there's plenty of that and to really be effective in exporting we need to team up with egypt and cyprus and countries on the other side of the mediterranean in europe who would be the gate to the european market january 2019 there was a meeting in cairo of the energy ministers of seven countries that came together seven entities italy greece cyprus egypt israel and jordan and the palestinians in the middle of all the conflicts and here were seven countries and since then we have been joined by france which is very strongly standing with us we have a community and not an alliance but an alignment of countries that want to make good use of these energy resources and if we build one pipeline common to egypt cyprus and israel we can take our product to europe the problem is that we are running into a conflict with turkey and turkey is led by a party which is islamist in nature it wants to reverse the secularization of turkish society we have to remember when american pilgrims sailed to massachusetts uh the ottoman empire was the most powerful nation on earth and now erdogan is trying to build this glory again he is pushing an islamist agenda he hates the government in egypt because they kicked out the muslim brotherhood he hates israel because of jerusalem he hates the greeks because of all turkish grievances and he's trying to push the borders of turkey so as to block israel egypt and cyprus you see because of our finding of gas we took a different place in the table well we are certainly by now a country that is no longer dependent on foreign energy we can become a significant exporter combined with the transformation of israel within the last generation from an economic basket case into one of the world leading centers of innovation high tech that's fulfillment of prophecy that god brought the people of israel and god is blessing the people of israel that israel will be a lie to the nation when i read this famous line there will be men old men and women and children playing in the streets of jerusalem well it's a city it's a city of nearly a million people it's the prophecy is alive the miracle of the return of the jewish people thank you very much you're welcome [Music] when we talk about the future of israel's energy grid that story cannot be told without speaking with joseph abramovic he's this country's founding father of solar energy we had moved from boston to small kibbutz in the arava desert the third most extreme desert in the world when we got out of the van it was the end of the day and van's air conditioning we opened the doors and was like oh my god we are just hit and i say oh i'm sure the whole place works on solar and of course it didn't and when i understood that nobody was gonna do it i said this i'm going to do i thought it was going to be easy clearly it wasn't yeah [Music] we need to come up with a business model called the irv company it was the first and the first always the hardest in every market plus i was just hit with this crazy vision wow wouldn't it be cool if we got the whole area the south of the country from the red sea to the dead sea to go 100 daytime solar by 2020. like i was just like on fire about that and everything went again it was just like that's not going to happen it's it's it's technically not feasible financially it's not feasible so you build this first field and you're somehow victorious what was the battle to get this approved what was the battle to get through the the red tape on this on this project so the state would essentially the first megawatts would have to essentially be subsidized to be able to jump start an entire industry so you can understand some objection there's no technical expertise in the country the gas companies everybody tried and no one could break through and i think because we were coming from a place of values because we wanted to do something majestic and good for the environment as well we they reluctantly gave us like a pass when they opened the doors just a little bit did you see a substantial shift in the way people look the the notion of clean or green energy after this happened or during the process was there something clicking this really clearly 14 years later today today we're celebrating a whole year this is the first region in the world to be a hundred percent solar powered during the day amazing yosef and his team had to do everything from raising capital to lobbying for changes to israeli energy laws in the process the minds and hearts of israeli leaders were opened and they welcomed solar energy to this country but yosef didn't stop there [Music] so there are 600 million people in africa without access to power and the population of the continent is going to double in one generation most important value to me is that we're all created in god's image and that therefore we're all endowed with the right to dignity the dignity of real education can't have without power the duty of health care the dignity of a job and a growing economy that that needs to be able to create these jobs none of it is possible without electricity in the bible in the garden of eden god creates a beautiful universe and gifts it to humanity to work it and to also guard it so much stronger than partnering with an orphan youth village and having that income cover all the health healthcare costs plus you know for 500 orphans so it's all it's all connected [Music] this is like i um a lot for it joseph is someone who practices what he preaches his own nuclear family reflects his desire to impact those in need together with his wife susan joseph raised five children two of whom were adopted from ethiopia and given a renewed chance to thrive in the promised land because when someone's life mission is based on biblical values their business ventures and their private life are often indistinguishable [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] shalom and welcome to insights israel and the middle east we're here to connect the dots between the land the bible and current events we're just coming out of the super long draw period the serious drought has been eight years running so we're gonna get to walk through this crazy place yes definitely we are here to make sure that we'll have water for another one of the year millions of people are relying on this and other competitions huge infrastructure unprecedented infrastructure are being built now if you said to anyone 20 years ago this is what's going to happen with israel they're like no way it's nothing short of a of a miracle i believe that israel can help a lot to solve the water problem first in the palestinian authority then in jordan all the middle east it's not a resource you can negotiate over it's not okay i guess we'll do without water this month it's non-negotiable to the point of like going to work [Music] the word water in evil with mine appears in the word heaven shamim you know it's it says in genesis that in the beginning god created the heaven and the earth the word heaven is a combination of two words mime and sham there is water water is mentioned over 700 times in the bible more than hope more than faith even more than praise the bible tells us that every time that the people of israel kept the commandments god blessed them how did he bless them he gave them the reign on time every time the people of israel turn their backs to the god of israel god stops the rain on the earth we see that water and blessings always come together we know that we're saved by the sacrifice of yeshua and we know that in our salvation a part of our salvation is to be baptized in water we know that water is a sign of purification so let us together see what god has for israel the god of abraham isaac and jacob the god of israel blessed israel with water how important is this water availability for the stability of a country you can see a connection between water stability and other kinds of stability you don't think about it because it's reality for us you know we always have running water there's always clean water the civilian war in syria started because of the drought there was a lot of potential for it but it started because of the water israel is mostly an arid place the founding fathers realize that without water there's no life and there's no real possibility to develop a young country from the beginning they understood the importance of water and they acted upon it in this red area there is no agriculture you do not have water it's a real mission valuable mission that that you're doing for the people of [Music] israel it's easy to forget when you drive through israel today that all these places that you're looking at that have green and vegetation and agriculture just a couple decades ago looked like this they were barren they were empty they were completely dry bone dry as we say when i was a child growing up in israel we were constantly trained to conserve water don't take long showers don't let the hose run don't water the yard there was a huge need to conserve water because there's such a scarcity of water in this land [Music] you came into mccourt in the time where israel was coming out of the drought and heading into the next drought that's right one week after i got into the office they established investigation committee regarding the water problems in israel because we didn't have enough water yeah the level of the water in the wells all over israel was very low it was really really a serious situation then it was when the dissemination plant starting to be connected to the system as we call it the revolution of the water sector [Music] idol was the ceo of mekorot when israel began to seriously address its water crisis michoate is israel's national water company was founded in 1937 which means it existed even before israel officially became a country since then it's grown into a huge company with many branches and over three thousand water installations throughout the country [Music] all with the purpose of supplying water to the people of israel i met with david barcelo who manages mccullough's department of innovations and ventures to discuss what is arguably mccoy's biggest achievement yet turning seawater into drinking water i guess this is one of the biggest achievements of the cohort and the state of israel we decided that drinking water would come from the sea it's an endless resource of water we built five desalination plant across the mediterranean sea and one more in inelat in the red sea and this provides more than 80 percent of drinking water it's very substantial yeah so this enables us to detach ourselves from the dependence on on climate the second biggest achievement is agriculture we are reusing 90 of our waste water and turning them into high quality water for irrigation is that abnormal is this something that's common around the world uh that's that's a world record behind us is probably spain 30 percent asked my people in court do you have the system how to take all this huge amount of water from the sea and put them into israel in three months we plan and design the new national water system of israel and that was one of the most important things they had the vision to think ahead many years ahead and establish this spine it goes across the whole the state of israel carries water to every point in israel [Music] the relevance and importance of israel's national water carrier is huge david referred to it as a spine that goes across the whole country and that's exactly what it is it's essentially a huge water main stretching across israel from north to south while the various stops along israel's water infrastructure feed into it this includes pumping stations reservoirs and now desalination plants being part of a government effort to do good is a unique privilege everywhere we look jordan egypt syria lebanon if you go farther iraq i mean no one in the region has water in israel we are now in a water surplus so that's that's quite amazing [Music] the innovation and the creativity and the faith of those first settlers and even the governments of israel transformed the way this country looked so things that used to look like this are now full of agriculture and today just a couple generations later me my kids growing up here in the land we're just living a different life we no longer have to worry about water scarcity or water security in the land the land has truly been transformed that is nothing short of a modern day miracle in the land [Music] we're heading up north on the 6th which is the main south north route in the country to the central galilee we're about to meet a woman named bonnie and by what i understand which is not a lot what she does is use fish like legit like little fish to keep the water clean in israel and also to monitor the quality of water i'm quite intrigued to see how this all works this is the major center where the water is collected treated tested 24 7. this water is monitored and coddled this is the drinking water this water will become drink this is raw drinking water this water has been pumped from the sea of galilee to be distributed for drinking water for israel [Music] this is the magic fish pond this is the magic fish pond cheers the magic fish these are the hard-working fish they don't seem to be working very hard at all but they actually are the water is pumped in through each of these chambers the fish are all getting exposed to the water so the little what do you call them the fingerlings yes these are extremely sensitive to their environment they will react very quickly if there's a change in some kind of an irritant what would you start swimming quickly very quickly erratically maybe up and down they go into stress exactly they'll be extremely stressed they could be aware of something like a chemical spill an oil spill anything outside their comfort zone these fish are from not wrong this is saint peter's fish that you would eat in any restaurant on the shores of the galilee correct these are tilapia the mindset of mikarot is to use as little artificial material as possible so we're looking towards the natural world what will give us the answer that we want and what would unnatural be what can be chemistry chemicals so let's see what nature does how does nature know if the environment is is not good kind of think of them as our little finney watchmen that are our first line of defense that are guarding the the drinking water for the citizens of israel the water supply in this country has always been problematic just like today the ancient jewish kings we read about in the bible were constantly innovating ways to supply water to the people and to keep the water supply protected during wartime if you've ever visited the city of david archaeological dig in jerusalem then you've probably seen one of jerusalem's biggest tourist attractions hezekiah's tunnel the name hezekiah's tunnel comes from the strongest hypothesis of the tunnel's origins it seems that the tunnel was built by king hezekiah from the old testament and that he built it as a means of maintaining the water supply within jerusalem during an impending siege by the assyrians today we're not battling the assyrians but we are winning the war against israel's water crisis we discussed how the majority of our water comes from desalination plants which sit as i'm sure you could guess at sea level but if you want to bring water up to jerusalem sitting at over 2000 feet of elevation you're gonna need a pump and it better be a big one jerusalem doesn't have any water since a thousand years ago till now they had to push water to jerusalem bringing water to jerusalem has been a historical problem since the early ages of history if hezekiah's tunnel you have water works going back three four five thousand years uh back here you are thousands of years later doing the same thing at just this incredible scale what is this place what we have here is four pumping units of 10 hundred cubic per hour so this this is what this is sort of the base station yes that's doing what it's taking all this water and like exactly pushing it up exactly we have almost 300 250 meters of pushing the water up just under a thousand feet of elevation yes when people talk about water most people will imagine a pipe maybe a little pump maybe a filter maybe a little uh reservoir yeah exactly these are much bigger projects like you've built a city [Music] this is by the looks of it one of the most impressive engineering projects in this country the main purpose of the tunnel is to convey water from this point to jerusalem each piece is 30 meters we have almost thousand pieces like this i think it's hard to grasp how big this project is until you stand in front of it how how wide and how big these pieces are you you must imagine water up to 40 bucks pressure a very high pressure high pressure in about three meter per second amazing so we get to go into this tunnel now we're riding on your special train yes let's do it [Music] wow what a ride so this is the end of the line yes everything from here is pipe all the way into jerusalem yes amazing [Music] so this is a pipe 2.6 meter diameter this is the final product the water will run here in this up to the east to jerusalem [Music] this is the reason that we invest a lot of money that people in jerusalem will open the top i never have to think about it yes what we are doing now we are planning for the next 100 years to supply the water you've just been traveling through the country through the company you managed there's technology everywhere there's water everywhere there's pipelines being laid in into every tiny community in the country in this man israel is a an island an island which solved the water i believe that israel can also help a lot all the middle east if it could be managed by the politicians creative idea you know my dream is that we could supply our water to jordan to syria why not in these pipes the water will go to jerusalem and from jerusalem by this pump to amman why not why not after a very impressive journey to key points across israel's water sector i had the privilege of sitting down with the lipschitz from israel's newly established water ministry he gave me an insider's perspective on the philosophy and attitude that sets israel apart when it comes to water especially in the middle east asking maybe just start by telling us what exactly you do in the ministry for water resources so what we do in history uh first we're trying to uh prepare the water our water sector what's our economy for the future we're building more destination plans to be ready for the future droughts for the future in addition we are strengthening the relationship between israel and other countries uh in use by using the um what israel has has learned in the past decades we are going to use the israeli technology share it with other countries our closest and and and first neighbors and bring water to everyone if i had to ask you to tell you know from the from a bird's eye view the story of water in this in this country in this region how would they look if you look 20 years back you've been in the government for what 15 years now exactly uh something like that yes you look 15 years back you look at where we are today how are things different now than they were back then at the beginning we were looking only a few years ahead today we are looking 20 and 30 years ahead we have a master master plan for the water for the water sector for the year 2014 and 2050. that's because we understand when it's done that we have to plan for the next few decades and the needs are growing all the time since the water is such a big issue in israel in all the middle east well we were just forced into it exactly yeah looking at everything that's happened in the country in the last decades it shows that there's been a huge amount of thought that's been given to changing the way we deal with water and maybe you just you know you've been on the inside for a long time can you share the philosophy and the thought that's gone into shaping the way we work with water in this country one of the first laws that was established that was uh accepted in the israeli parliament in the knesset is the law of water according to this law the water belongs to everyone that means that if you dig in your backyard and you find a whale of water we all own it we all own it you and me and all all the exactly all the people in israel and uh this is the philosophy we save water we are not allowed to waste water we want to leave the water for the future generations and we have to keep the water because it belongs to everyone most countries look at water as something that needs to be extracted that needs to be taken out of nature and you're saying that our government no longer looks at it that way it looks at it as something that we need to replenish and build into a few decades ago we used to take water from the sea of galilee then we stopped we're not taking water anymore we're taking less and less water and we'll have the ability to put back desalinate water back into this uf gallery we're refilling a resource exactly interesting we live in a very weird neighborhood having available water is not an obvious thing and i think it's it's very unique you know we now are building unique relationships with our neighbors where we're selling the water or providing them water and maybe you can give us a little inside information on how that uh how that's working out well currently we have peace agreements with three neighbors with jordan jordan kingdom egypt and the palestinian authority according to the peace agreement of the jordan kingdom we give the jordanians every year about 50 million cubic meters from the sea of galilee straight to straight to amman we also give the palestinian sorority by the way more than were obligated according to the peace agreement and we signed a peace agreement with the united arab emirates yes i'm sure they have water needs uh they have very talented people over there we can cover cooperate and cover it with them in order to give water solutions technologies of water for our new friends it's it's interesting to mention that because we're i assume we're not going to be sending a pipe of water across the gulf of aqaba to the united arab emirates or any other arab country but the technology and the knowledge to manage the water infrastructure that we can ship across whatever ocean exactly so the knowledge doesn't have any borders i'm sure we can share our knowledge with the future friends that hopefully we'll sign the peace agreement with them in the coming few few months so all this neighborhood the middle east is going to be changed thank you so much for taking the time thank you it's been fascinating [Music] we've learned how israel's water system brings life to the farthest reaches of the country and now it's time to see this miracle in action i traveled into the desert to meet a man who's utilizing israel's vast water infrastructure to prevent some very specific ancient plants significant to both the jewish and the christian faith from being lost forever this is what we call the core of the desert very very salty very hot here no water at all this is the tough desert so guys this is your farm yeah this is my farm this is the bottom of the art farm we are located at the jericho valley ten minutes away from the dead sea we are five minutes from the dead sea and this is why it's very salty the fact that we're sitting in the middle of a completely dry scorching hot desert and you have water to water these plants that's the result of this technology definitely on ancient times this plant was grown only next to world springs over here there is no world spring yeah we are bringing the water from another place i hit the road about 12 years ago with an even romantic vision to bring back the agriculture to the shores of the dead sea and to revive the industries that was once driven from it this is an ancient industry yes this isn't 25 years ago industry this is this is 1500 years yeah this industry was based on a very unique plant its name was a of gilad this plant was grown agriculturally only here and only by the ancient hebrew family this plant was the source of one of the most important medication of ancient times the source of the most desirable perfume of the roman empire the plant was so important so it served as the first ingredient of the infants of the holy temple and since the second temple period is the only ingredient of the anointing all the kings and the priests i want to bring it back guy tapped into something here reviving the cultivation of plants that our forefathers used in worship first was the bomb of gilead used in the temple and a staple of ancient israel's economy after that another family of plants that we read about in the gospels caught his attention frankincense and myrrh this is the same frankincense and myrrh that we read in the story of the magis coming to see baby jesus it's the same plant simply definitely is in danger of extension if you want the next generation to be familiar with the franklin sense we have to make a culture out of it otherwise it will disappear from the world this is my vision [Music] so guys these are uh they're trees yeah these are guys babies these are my babies this is a mirror called the glendalosa this is indian meal called komi for hawaii this is a meal called the harvey this is the yemeni meal considered to be a very high quality mirror it got a very unique smell and made few hundred plants of it because i really like its smell smell it wow yeah it's intense yeah let's make the bottom of village you got different note of smell in different parts of the plant i'm going to cut it and bring your finger here smell it that's an amazing smell these plants were sacred to our ancestors and without this little farm by the dead sea we could lose this important part of our history guy is using the same water system that keeps the people of israel alive and hydrated to bring life to the desert and make sure these ancient elements of worship are accessible for at least another generation without it the modern delivery system of the water wouldn't be possible to make this agriculture and thanks to this i'm able to go my place this is it's it's amazing we've had this chance to like sort of see how the system works around the country that at the end of the line somewhere in the middle of the desert his guy erlich and his biblical plants he opens the tap and water flows out to his plants this is part of the zionist story of a bringing back the past into life [Music] [Music] [Music] so shalom and welcome to insights israel and the middle east we're here to connect the dots between the land the bible and current events theoretically nothing's supposed to grow but look everything is green everything is flourishing so far it's worked so far just asking for a friend how safe is this we don't know pretty safe what are you growing here i mean what are all the plants that are growing here it's easier to ask for we're not growing what do you not grow here exactly if you don't know what's in the ground you're in a sense acting blindly we're sending sensors to africa to asia to places that you would never imagine basically we're teaching the world how to feed itself what you have here is is examples of cancer cells that are being killed by natural plant substances yes exactly the desert has a lot to offer the zionist dream still exists and lives in our hearts we all remember the story of the 12 spies when moses sent them in the land we all know the beautiful picture of those two spies carrying the grapevine but when the people of israel came back from diaspora after the second exile when god is bringing them back in the beginning of the 19th century the biggest problem was how would they provide for themselves there was a need there was a necessity and this necessity brought israel in the field of agriculture to levels which none of our neighbors got to israel is leading in the agriculture worldwide agriculture turned into a science here in the land of israel and it turned into a science because of necessity i believe that god the same god that brought us into the land gave us a supernatural wisdom in the field of agriculture let us see what god did in this field in the land of israel [Music] [Music] it was real people with real ambition who transformed this land from the desert into an agricultural dreamland like the one we're standing in right now and when you think about the miracle of the transformation the depth of that transformation you realize what a unique characteristic those people truly had [Music] we're looking at a flourishing green amazing desert which it's kind of an oxymoron instead of struggling you're sitting in a place that is a mass exporter of goods to the entire world it's layer on there on there on layer of innovation research discovery necessity pushing into just really creative ideas out of every challenge grows an opportunity here in the desert you're walking through the desert and you keep looking at all these plants and you're saying to yourself there must be something more i've met two kinds of israelis the ones that a challenge for them is a is a closed door and that's it and the kind of israelis that said the closed door is only an excuse to get into this room through the window [Music] i took a journey deep into southern israel to the arava the is a long desert valley along the border with jordan that stretches from the dead sea to the gulf of ilat and it's incredibly hot and dry here surprisingly it's also a mainstay of israel's agriculture industry what a place nadav no place like home look at this beautiful view this is what we see every morning from a window and it's very much not what you would expect from uh the middle of the desert quote unquote more agriculture than many areas of the country have probably greener than most of a lot of the places you've been at and this is you know the land of the end of summer right now we're in ghatseva a cooperative agricultural village in southern israel or a mushaf as it's known in hebrew it was founded in 1965 as part of israel's desert agriculture revolution with a hundred and fifty independent farms operating today ghatseva remains a key player in making sure desert farming continues to thrive nadav who oversees the entire moshav gave me the grand tour so let's go back to your origin story you're not of this place i'm not original originally how did you end up in the middle of the desert the zionist dream still you know exist and lives in our hearts what is that in your mind so look we are about we're half a mile from the jordanian border and to the west also nothing there we've decided we want to grow our kids here and basically make the desert bloom bring a different kind of israel here on a human level and right now i'm the ceo of the demo shop so i wasn't even born here not raised here but now i you know as they say i run this joint [Music] when you get into your car and you drive south of iosheva into the desert you see a lot of yellow you know this is desert why would i want to live here and then you take a left turn into the moshav and you see a lot of green and every time we have people that haven't spent much time here they say it's amazing i didn't realize it's so much green here the israeli market is very small how many people in israel eat what 8 million people it's nothing we grow for about 80 million people because people are you know persistent they're trying and it's working the topsoil here is something that almost nothing grows on and we can see in date farms and grapefruits peppers and tomatoes and all kinds of you know the good stuff they don't belong in this place basically it's a ton of things that don't belong to this place and also the knowledge that people have gained through the years we don't keep it to ourselves basically we're teaching the world how to feed itself now you've entered see the day trees and the little turnabout that says in the negev the people of israel will be tested by david ben-gurion this is how we live ourselves so far it seems like you've done well with this test so far so good so far so good these are called net houses they're not greenhouses this is a greenhouse you would grow tomatoes and then cucumbers left it's tunnels eggplants watermelons you can see we also grow corn here israeli agriculture is very high-tech we moved from throwing some water on the ground and see whatever grows to drip irrigation hanging the plants making more out of the three major things that you need for growing something you need soil you need water you need sun so sunlight we have year round water we don't have good quality water here but we drill for about a mile deep and we take very salty water but we learn how to use them in the fields even the soil that we step on most of the crops are not grown on the soil so we bring soul from other parts of israel we put it on the topsoil that already exists and then we grow on it about a hundred years ago when jews from mostly european countries called countries when they moved to israel they wanted to tear off this image of the jew that always looked down and always were looked down at and overnight they they shed the the shell of the diaspora of like of 2 000 years of being detached from the land of the country you saw a new jewish face you saw the strong farmer you don't see the black clothes you don't see the long beard you see the strong jew that is moving to israel and making the desert bloom it's sort of like the ultimate test of character you can't be soft and make it in the desert even if you look into the biblical narrative you can't ever achieve something of virtue or quality without going through a desert phase without the hardship and the struggle let's show you some of our greenhouses we talked so much there you go welcome we have the cherry tomatoes which are very famous for israel and if you look at the way that we grow them this is a stem right this is a tomato stand so it should just grow from the ground straight up right but what we do here we take it around back and forth back and forth why when you have a single stem that goes up you can have 20 tomatoes 40 tomatoes here you can take out of one stem one plant about 400 tomatoes why do we even need to grow things on the ground we have strawberries there's a little bit of dirt in it and they use whatever water they need and because they're in an angle whatever leftover water flows down to a water tank and you reuse the water here you have mint now why grow mint on the ground why not grow it on a post let it go up easier to pick less insects less bugs if i have a greenhouse okay so i'll probably plant several plants and let it grow no there's a better way to do it try to hang it try to push it try to pull it we're sending this place that's a hub of thinking creatively about how to maximize everything exactly so tell me how it is just dig into it this is juicy great huh very sweet i'm getting live off of that [Music] so right now we're going to a date farm that a friend of mine is working on it's right over there [Music] so now we're going to meet thomas hey tommy hi nice to meet you okay coming up yeah we're coming up so you're the real deal when we think about the people out in the desert making agriculture happen you're the face of that i appreciate it i want to teach my kids also to know what is a hard work and why we're here in israel i need to do it myself before i teach other people to do it so i take the challenge on myself right now so i imagine toma most of the work happens at height and we're here mainly because we want to go up so let's go let's go up let's go up so here you can actually see the view on this side is the moshav itself more day plantation greenhouses when you get up at height it's even more shocking how much there's a contrast you're in the middle of the most deserty desert you could imagine this is exactly the future of agriculture in israel if tomorrow and their likes will choose to come here to learn about it to work in this environment for a year or two i can see a bright future because this is going to be a very high tech field of expertise we think here in the arava this is the the next field where israel is going to lead the world and thomas is a perfect example for it the early pioneers who came back to the land in the late 19th century endured incredible hardship trying to cultivate the land again and over time with the development of technology things got easier today things are much different israel became an exporter of technology and knowledge to the farthest corners of the earth in fact in deserts around the world today plants and fields are growing with technology coming out of the land of zion so we've seen how israeli innovation has helped with the desert problem but now we're going to meet something slightly different we're on our way up to natani which is in the northern coastal area of israel to meet with cropex which is this new startup company who've developed a new sensor package which is supposed to help farmers around the world have a deeper understanding of exactly what's happening in their field in real time [Music] we're about to see a demonstration of the system do you want to introduce your all-star team before we uh get started yeah sure thing avi recently did elia from new jersey uh he's an agronomist and data science under the granary team and guy is the vp of agronomy he knows everything there is to know so he's the guy with a plan huh exactly the brain my uh grew up in los angeles she's a part of the customer service team so so this is it i mean i was expecting you know some heavy machinery it looks like you guys brought the same equipment i have at home it's just one power tool and that's all you need all i do is i find where i want to put it in the field and then i dig a hole and then we just screw it into the ground as such it's that simple i can now see the data from the soil i can see that it was recently fertilized they can see the moisture content of the soil and they can see soil temperature so with this data that i get immediately the farmer can make much better decisions cropex represents israeli agritech at its finest it's a smart farming device that gives farmers real-time insights into the conditions of their soil and it's being used around the world tropics is part of the agtech revolution so we have sensors in this device that measure the moisture of the soil electroconductivity which is salinity the saltiness of the soil we connect that to nitrogen and fertility and temperature the part that you see out of the ground transmits to the cloud what have farmers been doing so far in many places yeah they do this you're kidding no i'm not kidding still today in the first world yeah we create much more value between 10 and 20 yield increasement which is which is huge huge with every sensor that is installed across the globe our system continues to learn and to get smarter and the power of the system grows because the system because the system is getting more the system yeah exactly when i was done with my previous startup i really looked for something different that kind of had a do good part to it you know since then i haven't looked back yet again the challenges israelis are facing have led to solutions that impact people everywhere in the world this is what happens when god blesses a nation promises to prosper them and then empowers them to carry out his promises if you can make it in the air of i can probably make it anywhere in israel if you want to be a pioneer in any field of expertise this is the place to be it's a huge honor being able to expose israel to the world through a positive technology you know that really helps save the globe from the arava where people are putting in the hours and developing methods to make the desert bloom to innovative israelite that is creating a global smart farming network the future looks bright and the sky's the limit [Music] with us today is professor jaime rabinovic the bible tells us that the land of israel is the land of milk and honey and with him we're going to discuss the whole issue of agriculture professor rabbinovich welcome welcome to our show it's a pleasure to be here thank you in israel you're known to be the father of the cherry tomatoes i'm not the father i'm a member of a team maybe head of the team and so on so forth but it all started with our previous work on extending the shelf life of the tomato indeed the shelf life of the tomato was extended but b the tomato could stay on the bush for a longer period of time thus accumulate more sugars more acids more volatiles so all the goodies instead of being compacted into let's say 50 tons is being compacted in 25 so it's even more tasty picking cherry tomatoes is laborious a trained worker with salah tomato who does like that picks about 800 kilograms per day a cherry tomato is 60 kilograms per day so it's much more expensive and we asked ourselves when you buy grapes do you ever dream of buying grapes individually never ever you think about a bunch of grapes right so why can't we do the same thing with cherry tomatoes that's beautiful so ah when a fruit develops seeds actually a lot of energy between lots of sugars lots of fatty acids proteins and so on so forth go into the seed which is the embryo of the next generation now israel was the first one to develop to what we call pathocarpic cucumbers once they develop without seeds that means a you don't need fertilizers so you save a lot of the space all the plants are female for this respect b cucumbers are much more tasty and this was spread all over the world in every every field of agriculture that you throw a stone you find a touch of israeli innovative approach when we talk about israel israel is known that is leading in agriculture it's probably because of necessity but in which mainly because it's a combination of very high skilled farmers a very good supporting system of experts very good contacts most of israeli agriculture farmers are university graduates and they give they keep well there are very few of them today they're about 12 000 growers in israel and it's not surprising to get a telephone call from a farmer look i was a student like 20 years ago i have a problem can you help me in answering the problem in science of force very high sophisticated seed industry of fruit and vegetables that were developed in israel and are being sold now all over the world rather than importing uh things that were developed let's say in denmark and i have nothing against denmark but it is suitable to a different climate difference different different soil different everything so by adding this together with good farming you can get a good good good produce professor jaime robinovich what a great insight on agriculture thank you very much and for your friend stay with us for another insight on israel [Music] we use technology and innovation to grow crops in the desert despite the harsh conditions but when you take those conditions and combine them with agricultural know-how and medical science miracles can take place hello rivky shalom welcome thank you thank you for coming is this your famous lab yes please enter thank you at a young age dr rifkiofi packed her bags and headed to israel's desert where she got her phd in plant biology for decades she has been studying the healing properties of plants native to the alava and what she's discovered is that their ability to heal is directly related to the desert environment in which they grow so we're here because you present a fascinating story so maybe we can start sort of with the background story of how you got to here today love brought me here this was in 1973. i joined my husband muschale he was the founder of the mushaf hatseva from 1973 to 1982 we work on the fields and raise three kids and i always dream about going back to science lucky me on 1982 i went to do my phd in ben gurion university i asked the question why the immune system failed to eradicate cancer diseases it's quite relevant still quite quite relevant still being a mother traveled a lot in the desert around me i saw the desert plants and i already had the idea that there is some secret in this plant and maybe i will be able to harness them to my research [Music] in one of the plants which is called achillea fragmentosa i found something very interesting not just against cancer but against a brain diseases there was one compound that i really liked so the chemists say bring me a lot of this material and i will separate this compound and give you a tube with this compound so i went to the desert to the same place where i collect this plant took the seeds went to the farm irrigate fertilized et cetera and every huge amount berks with the plant and i went to this chemist in tel aviv and he said i need to disappoint you i can find this compound only in the desert plant i don't find it where you irrigate while trying to extract this miracle compound dr rivki stumbled across the true secret of the desert many people when they imagine a plant we want to give it the best conditions but in reality especially in the desert they need some kind of stress the plants that grow in the desert going through many many harsh conditions like irradiation salt sun knowing the quality only comes out when it's hard yes so this is the famous lab yes and in the lab we have sales uh-huh cancer cells will grow here in the incubator can i take a look you can look on them in order to be expert you need to look in the microscope i'm not an expert yes so the yellow ones in your sample are the cancer cells that died from desert plant extracts exactly yes that's a quite a good sample there yes we have many samples like this you say this in passing as if it's like an obvious thing but what you have here is is examples of cancer cells that are being killed by by natural plant substances yes exactly yeah that's quite a statement exactly for you it's like yes another day in the office but for most people that's that's news it's not chemo it's not radiation yes that is killing cancerous cells exactly so many years i tell the people that there is something unique in the desert and suddenly i was able to prove it it's just a beautiful process say like look there must be something about these plants there's something about the hardship and then you you proved it it's almost impossible to miss the analogies between the personal journey and the story of reclaiming the desert you sort of did that same process on the cellular level i agree with you i really agree thank you for making all these conclusions it's your story [Music] thank you for joining us as we provide a spiritual insight of what god is doing in israel and in the middle east if you want to learn more about what god is doing in israel make sure to visit us on our webpage and follow us on social media shalom and god bless you from jerusalem

Channel: TBN Israel

Views: 61,858

Keywords: israel, israel technology, energy, solar energy, solar power, zion, zion oil and gas, gas, oil, oil in israel, energy sources, the future of energy storage, Mati Shoshani, renewable energy, water filtration system, drought in israel, tbn, tbn israel, recycling water, israel innovation, israeli inventions, harnessing the sun, desert farming techniques, desert greenhouse, cropx, farming, treat cancer naturally, desert plants, cropx technologies, the future of agriculture, agriculture

Id: nBjieMbJrrM

Length: 71min 7sec (4267 seconds)

Published: Tue May 03 2022