Israel is developing two unusual export items — electronic fences, and alligators.
According to a spokesman for the Israel Aircraft Industries, part owner of Magal, a local company manufacturing electronic fences, over 600 miles of Israeli made electronic fences have been sold to foreign governments for installation along borders and around airports, nuclear reactors, parliaments and royal castles.
One of the most recent deals was with the organizers of the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, where some six miles of fences with devices to signal penetrations, were installed around the Olympic villages.
Although the other clients have not been named, they are understood to include Britain, where fences have been installed around royal residences. Israel developed the electronic fence system to safeguard its borders.
Native crocodiles disappeared from Israel nearly 50 years ago, but alligators were reintroduced from Florida when a special alligator zoo was established near Lake Tiberias three years ago, when about 20 alligators were flown in.
First attempts to breed them were unsuccessful, when of several dozen eggs laid in the first year only one baby alligator was hatched — and named Rishon Le’Zion (First in Zion).
Last year 180 “sabra alligators” were hatched, and the keepers at the nature preserve hope that this year over 250 of the eggs so far laid will hatch. The preserve authorities are now offering the Israeli alligators for sale to zoos and interested persons abroad.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
