Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a busy schedule on Tuesday (July 4) after Modi’s arrival at 4 pm, when he was feted with the red carpet treatment, from a military band, speeches and a reception line of officials ranging from cabinet members all the way down to top government staff members.
The most important man in India has already delivered his first speech in Israel, speaking of the numerous fields in which his nation works together with the Jewish State, and the heroism he so admires, that was required to save the lives of Israeli hostages exactly 41 years ago (July 4, 1976, the Entebbe raid), and that took the life of “the older brother of my friend, Bibi.” Modi was blunt about the need to unite in the fight against terror, and about his country’s dedication to that cause.
Both prime ministers traveled together straight from Ben Gurion International Airport to the Danziger Flower Farm at Mishmar Hashiva, where they were accompanied by Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel. “The Volcani Institute, which does a lot of this research, I think it’s the most advanced agricultural research institute in the world,” Netanyahu said. I’d say none is more advanced. That’s the way I would say it to be sufficiently humble. But, these people are doing remarkable things and you can increase the productivity of crops, of irrigation, of soil, livestock with the kind of groundbreaking research that they’re doing. One thing you haven’t resolved,” he added, “is how to bring down the temperature in a greenhouse. It’s too costly.”
The Danziger Farm named a variety of white chrysanthemum after Prime Minister Netanyahu and Indian Prime Minister Modi.
Prime Ministers Modi and Netanyahu went next to the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum, where India’s head of state entered the Hall of Names, participated in a memorial Ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance, toured the Children’s Memorial and signed the Yad Vashem Guest Book.
The two prime ministers also took time just before sunset to visit the grave of Theodore Herzl, the founding father of the Zionist State, at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.
The two leaders met again Tuesday evening for dinner at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, barely an hour and a half after Modi’s arrival in the Jewish State, Israeli company Water-Gen, owner of a proprietary and patented technology for producing potable water from the air, signed a memorandum of understanding with India’s SUN Group, whose vice president is one of the members of the business delegation that arrived in Israel with the Indian prime minister. As part of the MOU, the two companies agreed on cooperation in the distribution of Water-Gen’s cutting-edge technology in the Indian market, with an emphasis on the Indian military, official institutions, and government agencies.