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[i]As part of our effort to support Israel's advances in science and technology, I have today agreed with Prime Minister Peres to proceed with space-based experiments in sustainable water use and environmental protection. These experiments will take place in unmanned space vehicles, in the shuttle program, and in the International Space Station. And as a part of this effort, we will also train Israeli astronauts to participate in these programs. We look forward to working out the arrangements for this cooperation, and we are absolutely certain that it will benefit Israel's high-tech development as well as our own.[/i]
[i]One day in late 1995, Jeremy Issacharoff, a former political counselor at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, took his 5-year-old son, Dean, to the National Air and Space Museum. As the two strolled through the crowded exhibits, ambling past Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 capsule and under Chuck Yeager's bright-orange rocketplane, Dean stopped at a space shuttle display. He noticed dozens of non-U.S. astronauts, including a member of the Saudi royal family, had flown aboard a shuttle. Dean looked up at his father and asked the obvious question: "Daddy, why isn't there an Israeli astronaut?" As luck would have it, the elder Issacharoff had been brainstorming new initiatives for an upcoming summit meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres and President Bill Clinton. "I thought, that's not a bad idea. I went back to the ambassador at the time, who was Itmar Rabinovich, and I wasn't sure how to broach the idea," Issacharoff said. "I thought they might think I had gone a bit nuts. I said, 'My kid had this idea. What do you think?'" It didn't take long before Rabinovich said "Go for it." U.S. officials cleared the idea with NASA and the National Security Council.[/i]
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