"I had been to China 5 times before I was appointed as the ambassador to China. Every time I came to China I saw the difference.

　　"Chinaweek: Would you mind talking a little about your experience in the past time, such asswheresdid you work as an ambassador in addition to the position in China"Mr. Shelef: I am a lawyer in my profession, and I joined the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Israel thirty-seven years ago. Before joining I was a private lawyer in Jerusalem. My first position abroad was in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, then I became a counselor in the Israeli Embassy in Tokyo, Japan. After that I served for several years at the head quarters in Jerusalem. Since I had worked in Africa and Asia, I decided to learn about North America, so I was sent to serve in Israeli Ambassy to Canada, as DCM and later as the ambassador. After some other transitions I became the Israeli Ambassador to China in 2000.

　　Chinaweek: In the two years since you took the position as the Israeli ambassador to China, China has experienced a lot that it has never experienced before. What's your impression about these changes"

　　Mr. Shelef: I first came to China in the year 1995, since then I have visited Beijing at least once a year. I had been to China 5 times before I was appointed as the ambassador to China. During every visit to China I saw tremendous changes. The development of China is fast. The first time I came to China I saw that the number of bicycles were far larger than that of cars, but now the cars are more common then bicycles. In my first visits there were hardly supermarket, now you see them all over the city. I believe a major change took place about 3 or 4 years ago when the Chinese people realized that their current living conditions are much better than they used to enjoy in the past. The changes are fast and for the better.

　　"40% of Israeli land is desert ...this condition forced us to find a solution, a solution to survive."

　　Chinaweek: As you have mentioned the living environment right now, as far as I know the natural environment of Israel is as hard as the west and central China. However in the last 10 years, the economy of Israel has grown 4.7% per year and Israel achieved the GNP US,500 per person, which is close or higher than the growth of Spain, New Zealand, Portugal, Greece and some other EU member countries. Would you please introduce to us the ways Israel reached such great achievements"

　　Mr. Shelef: Insgroupsto answer your question I must first introduce Israel's conditions, 40% of our land is a desert, and the dry season with practically no rain prevails from the beginning of April to the end of October. Therefore, these conditions forced us to find solution for our survival. We had to find a way despite the harsh conditions to produce food, allow our people to work, and live in a modern society. The environment is hostile, not favorable, we are short of water so we depended on rainfall. If we had no rain in the winter, then there was not enough water for the summer. These circumstances had forced us to develop advanced irrigation and agriculture technologies. We don't have a lot of water, so we developed equipment to save water and also save money and at the same time we produced good agriculture products. That's why we have introduced our agriculture systems and know-how to China, especially to the Western parts of China.

　　About the industry, we realize that the number of farmers is going down, whereas the agriculture products are going up. Hence we have enough manpower. With the development of the world, the young people want to work in the modern industries, they don't want to continue working as farmers. So they moved to the modern cities, like what happens today in China. So we decided to develop the modern industries insgroupsto provide employment for them.

　　The education system in Israel is high leveled, especially in the high-tech fields. We directed the young people to study and gain expertise in the technological fields like computers and electronics. And the government invested money in research and development. The result was that there are many "Start-Ups"in Israel.

　　"Take the money and work on your idea"

　　Chinaweek: Oh, there are also some in China.

　　Mr. Shelef: Yes. What is the idea behind a start up company" Two or three young people with an idea work together. They don't have money, so they recruit the money from people who have money and wish to make investments. Israel today stands as the number one country in the world with the largest number of "Start-Ups" And the government has supported them also by building technological "Green houses" I will give you an example. These young people were given money by the universities, and by the government. They are supplied with Offices, secretaries, labs, telephones; every thing is covered for them. They don't have to pay for these services for one or two years. The government told them "Take the money and work on your idea."Later on when they come up with a product and earn money they have to share the revenues with the government.

　　Chinaweek: Who will evaluate these ideas?

　　Mr. Shelef: The chief scientists. In Israel one of the most important positions in the government is the chief scientist. The chief scientist will evaluate these ideas, decide which of the ideas are good and has a future then allocate the funds to be invested in the project.

　　Chinaweek: What kind of person will be employed as the chief scientist?

　　Mr. Shelef: A persons with a combination of experience in both industry and science, that's the most suitable man for this job.

　　Chinaweek: Will the chief scientist be found in Israel or will they search for him abroad ".

　　Mr. Shelef: They won't look abroad, because the person must have deep knowledge of the domestic technological and industrial environment of Israel.

　　"We always have question on each answer...we had to struggle to survive"Chinaweek: I'd like to raise a question. The Jewish people are very famous for their industrious and intelligent.

　　I can name at least three most influential people for the last two centuries, Karl Marx, Einstein, and Freud are from the Jewish origins. What is it inside the spirit that makes the Jewish people contribute such greatly for the humankind"Mr. Shelef: As far as I know at least one third of the Nobel Prize winners are from Jewish origins. There are two reasons for it, I think. The first reason it is the way we study, we never take an answer as an answer. We always have question on each answer. We never stop asking questions. This is the Jewish traditional way of studying and thinking. For example, if you go to an Israeli university and enter the class; and the professor gives a lecture there are always questions coming from the students. And if you go to other countries, you enter the class the students listen to the lecture quietly and at the end they leave with no question to ask.

　　For thousands of years the Jewish people were always a minority. For two thousand years we were expelled from homeland. Our homeland was destroyed by the Roman Empire. Our people were scatted all over the Roman Empire of those days. We were forced to live as a minority among other people and didn't enjoy the same rights like the majority. We were prosecuted and not given rights like the majority enjoyed, because our people are different. We have different religion and unique culture. We had to struggle to survive by being good in fields that the majority allowed us. We had to be good insgroupsto gain rights. This resulted that the Jewish people were very good in adapting to the circumstances of life. After we came back to our homeland, we faced a lot of difficulties. Insgroupsto overcome them, we were forced to find solutions using our talents. One of our achievements is our economy. No doubt we are among the leading countries in the world in high-tech and telecommunication. The secret behind it is the hard work. If you don't work hard, you will not achieve it."We have made both our economies stronger, because both our economy found how to complemented each other."Chinaweek: Now we'd like to discuss something about the cooperation in economy and trade between China and Israel. Which can be advisable for each other"

　　Mr. Shelef: We are satisfied with our trade relationship with China, because they are developing quit well, especially in the last year. I have the figures. In the year 2001, our export to China went up by 26%, and stand on US million; while the Chinese export to Israel increasing by 27%, and reached the figure of US million.

　　Chinaweek: What is the main product for the exchanges?

　　Mr. Shelef: Israeli export to China includes mainly telecommunication, chemical, and agriculture products, whereas the Chinese export to Israel's focused on textile, chemical, minerals, agriculture and food products. You can clearly see the exchange is growing steadily and we are glad to see it. We work hard on it, just like my open remarks that an ambassador today is also the ambassador of economy, not only a political ambassador.

　　We have made both our economies stronger through the trade, because both our economy found how to complemented each other. That is natural. We have to let the market find the best way for both complementing the economies. The businessmen can make business with each other.

　　Chinaweek: Now the Chinese government is making an effort to explore and construct the West China. I know that Israel has a big project in Changji, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in Northwest China as part of China West exploration. At the same time when I was young I was interested very much on Israeli high-efficiency agriculture. Would you please introduce more about it" And as there is a similarity of the natural conditions between Xinjiang and Israel, can Israeli agriculture share the good experience with our Xinjiang?

　　Mr. Shelef: Israel and China had established their diplomatic relation more than ten years ago. Israel decided to share with China its experience and know-how in the fields which are the most important for China. That's why in 1994 Israel built an agriculture demonstration farm near Beijing, which introduced the most modern Israeli agriculture technologies as an example for Chinese people all over the country. It is for demonstration about what can be done by using modern technologies.

　　About two or three years ago we learned about the decision of Chinese government to allow every pupil to have a glass of milk per day. By the way we had it in Israel 50 years ago. And we know that there was a shortage of milk in China. So we built a project with the Beijing municipal government. The Beijing government supplied the basic equipment, cattle resources, and necessary stuff, and Israel provide it most advanced dairy equipment and experts. Within several months the productively went up by 23%. This is the second demonstration farm. So we have two farms near Beijing, one is specialized greenhouses and fields in 1994, and the new one a dairy farm built almost two years ago.

　　We learned the important decision about Chinese government to develop the west. We know the west is short of water similar to Israel, so we built another project with the Chinese government and the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, including an agriculture demonstration center in which we use the advanced technologies we use in the Israeli agriculture. The Chinese government decided to build it in Urumqi, and we work very hard on it. We have three parts in this project. The first one is training, then research and development, and the last is field production. The training already of R&D will be done in an agriculture school. Local government allocated two agriculture schools. One is in Changji, a city in Xinjiangswheresthe training began two weeks ago, and we will build greenhouses with the Chinese experts to research technique and products suitable for Xinjiang. Then we do some other activities in the second agriculture school, which is 35 km away from Changji. We are going to grow cotton, corn and other crops using Israel technology. We are going to send Israeli experts to stay and work there.

　　Chinaweek: May I know the reason why you chose Changji?

　　Mr. Shelef: Chinese government decided to choose Xinjiang, and the local government chose Changji. It has not enough water to develop nice agriculture. And we are happy to find the agriculture schools here,swhereswe can carry out our training program.

　　"Thousands years ago, some Jewish businessmen came to China through the famous silk road, and some settled down in Kaifeng in Central China's Henan Province and Xi'an Northwest China's Shanxi Province during Song Dynasty."Chinaweek: We have talked about the economy cooperation between China and Israel. In fact, the culture exchange is flourishing like the economic cooperation between our two countries. I remember clearly that last year in China Art Gallery, an Israeli Modern Art Exhibition was successfully held and attracted quite a number of Chinese people.

　　Mr. Shelef: Jewish people and Chinese people belong to nations with long and rich history. Therefore, there must be a lot to be done in our culture exchange, both traditional art and modern art. We have many things to do and had many things done. In the last 2 years, Israel had music performances, exhibitions, dance showed in China, while last year the biggest successful Chinese culture exhibition was held in Jerusalem. There are many Chinese students studying in Israel, and Israeli government sends students to study Chinese in China.

　　Chinaweek: There are two popular facts about the friendship between our people. One is the Jewish village in Kaifeng, Most Jewish people in other countries are very independent but this village's Jewish people are Chinese-lized. The other is that in WWII, most countries closed the door to the Jewish people but Shanghai became a special shelter for the Jews. This two facts provide good evidence that Chinese culture and Jewish culture both with long history can easily merge with each other.

　　Mr. Shelef: Yes, that's the facts. Thousands years ago, some Jewish businessmen came to China via the famous silk road, and some settled down in Kaifeng and Xi'an during Song Dynasty. They established their society there, but the Chinese people treated them very well. Therefore, they communicated with the Chinese people and married them.

　　However, in other parts of the world, Jewish people had been persecuted by the local majorities. Especially during the second world war, most countries closed their gates to Jews, and Shanghai was the only place for them to enter without a visa. At that time nearly 30 thousand Jewish people had been protected in Shanghai. Besides, Harbin and Tianjin had also been the refuge place for Jewish people fled from Russia.

　　Chinaweek: What's your definition of peace?

　　Mr. Shelef: As there are bad things prevailing in the Middle East, today we have to respect each other and not to kill each other we should sit around the table and talk to each other. Peace will be reached after the whole Arab world including the Palestinian to recognize the Jewish state. Egypt,Jordan, Tunis and some other coutries have recognized Israel by signing agreement of peace with us. We hope other Arab countries will do the same. It's a pity to see the terror and war. We'd rather negotiate than fight. We want to talk to each other to bring peace as soon as possible.Chinaweek: It's my pleasure to talk with you. Would you like to say something to our readers?

　　Mr. Shelef: It is a special and happy experience for me to serve as the Israel ambassador in China, which enable me to learn a lot about China and the Chinese people. It's great to bring Chinese people and Israel people together. The potential cooperation of our two countries is high. China and Israel have worked hard to follow China development in the last 7 years. China has achieved a lot of achievements in its economy and China will continue the development insgroupsto provide the Chinese people with a better future.

　　Water

　　The scarcity of water in the region has generated intense efforts to maximize use of the available supply and to seek new resources. In the 1960s, Israel's freshwater sources were joined in an integrated grid whose main artery, the National Water Carrier, brings water from the north and center to the semi-arid south. Ongoing projects for utilizing new sources include cloud seeding, recycling of sewage water and the desalination of seawater.

　　Agro-Technology

　　Israel is one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and yet only 20% of the land is arable - and half of that has to be irrigated. More than half of Israel is arid or semi-arid, and the rest of the country is dominated by steep hillsides and forests. Yet thanks to cutting-edge technology, Israel not only produces most of its own food, but also exports .3 billion worth of agricultural produce annually. This includes farm products as well as some .2 billion worth of agricultural inputs and technology sold overseas every year.

　　Because Israeli farmers and scientists have had to contend with a difficult environment and limited water resources, their experience is especially relevant to the developing world. Development of greenhouse equipment, seed and livestock propagation, fertilizers and pesticides have enabled Israeli agriculture to prosper in adversity. In addition, farmers have learned to develop high value-added and innovative farm products that enable them to compete in markets with lower-cost producers. Water management, recycling, desalination and transportation in the National Water Carrier have enabled the country to overcome drastic shortages.

　　Science & Technology

　　Israel is a small country in the big world of science and technology. Like many other small countries, it has sharply defined policies towards scientific and technological activities aimed at enhancing its competitive position. In science, Israel encourages the establishment of centers of excellence around outstanding scientists and in areas of vital concern to the development of the industrial sector, while endeavoring to maintain an international level of quality achievement across the broad spectrum of scientific fields. International cooperation continues to play a major role in this effort by facilitating the extension of scientific resources and expert knowledge at Israel's disposal. In technology, Israel strives for high performance mainly through specialization, concentrating national efforts on a limited number of areas.

　　The percentage of Israel's population engaged in scientific and technological inquiry as well as the amount spent on research and development (R&D), in relation to the size of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP), are among the highest in the world; and, relative to the size of the labor force, Israel has by far the largest number of publishing authors in the natural sciences, engineering, agriculture and medicine.

　　History

　　The birthplace of the Jewish people is the Land of Israel (Eretz Israel). There, a significant part of the nation's long history was enacted, of which the first thousand years are recorded in the Bible; there, its cultural, religious and national identity was formed; and there, its physical presence has been maintained unbroken through the centuries, even after the majority was forcedsintosexile. During the many years of dispersion, the Jewish people never severed nor forgot its bond with the Land. With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence, lost two thousand years earlier, was renewed.

　　Israel in Brief

　　Israel is a land and a people. The history of the Jewish people, and of its roots in the Land of Israel, spans some 35 centuries. In this land, its cultural, national and religious identity was formed; here, its physical presence has been maintained unbroken throughout the centuries, even after the majority was forcedsintosexile, With the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Jewish independence, lost 2,000 years earlier, was renewed.

　　Location

　　Israel is located in the Middle East, along the eastern coastline of the Mediterranean Sea, bordered by Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. It lies at the junction of three continents: Europe, Asia and Africa.

　　Geography

　　Long and narrow in shape, the country is about 290 miles (470 km.) in length and 85 miles (135 km.) in width at its widest point.

　　Although small in size, Israel encompasses the varied topographical features of an entire continent, ranging from forested highlands and fertile green valleys to mountainous deserts and from the coastal plain to the semitropical Jordan Valley and the Dead Sea, the lowest point on earth. Approximately half of the country's land area is semi-arid.

　　Climate

　　Israel's climate is characterized by much sunshine, with a rainy season from November to April. Total annual precipitation ranges from 20-50 inches (50-125 cm.) in the north to less than an inch (2.5 cm.) in the far south. Regional climatic conditions vary considerably: hot, humid summers and mild, wet winters on the coastal plain; dry, warm summers and moderately cold winters, with rain and occasional light snow, in the hill regions; hot, dry summers and pleasant winters in the Jordan Valley; and semi-arid conditions, with warm to hot days and cool nights, in the south.

　　Population

　　Israel is a country of immigrants. Since its inception in 1948, Israel's population has grown seven-fold. Its 6.2 million inhabitants comprise a mosaic of people with varied ethnic backgrounds, lifestyles, religions, cultures and traditions. Today Jews comprise 78.5% of the country's population, while the country's non-Jewish citizens, mostly Arabs, number about 21.5%.

　　Flora and Fauna

　　The rich variety of Israel's plant and animal life reflects its geographical location as well as its varied topography and climate. Over 380 kinds of birds, some 150 mammal and reptile species, and nearly 3,000 plant types (150 of which are native to Israel) are found within its borders. About 150 nature reserves and 65 national parks, encompassing nearly 400 square miles (almost 1,000 sq. km.) have been established throughout the country.All the backgrounds are from www.mfa.gov.il