FOREIGN AID : Israelis Back in Business Lending a Hand Abroad

Working in field clinics in the remote back country of East Africa, Israeli ophthalmological surgeon David Reshef treated 22,000 patients last year, restoring the sight of thousands blinded by cataracts and eye diseases endemic in rural, sub-Saharan Africa.

“This man is changing the lives of people, actually of whole communities, in ways that very few of us ever can,” said Yosef Beilin, Israel’s deputy foreign minister. “When a blind person regains his sight, his life changes dramatically. . . . Dr. Reshef makes us very, very proud.”

Beilin, in fact, feels that Israel has much to be proud of in its small but resurgent foreign assistance program.

Israelis are helping grow onions in Albania and Mongolia, advising the Bahamas on restoring agriculture damaged in last year’s hurricanes, operating model farms in Egypt, running blood banks in Burma and Nepal and organizing medical care for those crippled by El Salvador’s civil war.

Thousands of specialists from developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America are being trained each year in Israel in fields as diverse as early childhood education, firefighting, beekeeping and trade union organizing. Last year, 2,364 specialists from 90 countries went through training courses here, an increase of nearly a third from 1991.

And Israeli expertise is being sought in agriculture, public health, environmental protection and rural development by virtually all the states emerging from the former Soviet Union, particularly in Central Asia; by China, India and Vietnam, and in South Africa by the African National Congress.

Ehud Gol, director of the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s International Cooperation Division, said his country is now assisting 114 developing nations, an increase of 40 in the past three years.

“We are extending our assistance program even faster than we are establishing diplomatic relations,” Gol said. “Israel now has diplomatic relations with 120 countries . . . but we have assistance programs in a number of Third World countries with whom we don’t yet have formal relations.”

Israel’s foreign aid program is far from new. In the 1960s, Israeli agronomists, physicians, desert specialists and other aid workers were spread through Africa and Latin America, winning friends for their country with an assistance program recognized as one of the most effective.

“We came from what itself was a developing country, and as a result we had a good idea what was needed, what was appropriate and how to get it done,” said an Israeli who worked in Cambodia in the 1970s. “We came without a huge support apparatus like the Americans or the Russians had. We had no colonizing concept like the French. . . . We just came to work, and we did.”

Following the Israelis’ stunning victory over the Arabs in the 1967 Middle East War, their military advice was also much sought, and Israeli officers helped establish programs to train armies in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.

“ ‘Ask the Israelis’ was the byword in Addis under Haile Selassie,” recalled a European diplomat who served in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, before the 1974 overthrow of the late Emperor Haile Selassie. “They weren’t that many--nothing as numerous as the Americans--but they were the ones who were trusted. Even the hotel where they stayed became a real power center.”

But dozens of the countries that Israel was assisting, including most in Asia and Africa, canceled the aid programs after the 1973 Arab-Israeli War.

“The excuse was solidarity among the nonaligned nations, but the real reason was the promise of Arab oil money,” said an African ambassador whose country recently renewed diplomatic ties with Israel--and immediately signed an aid agreement. “We are not just talking about Arab assistance for the country’s development, but Arab money that went into our leaders’ pockets.”

The decline in Arab grants and the change in the international political climate, particularly the start of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations, have made it easier for Jerusalem to re-establish diplomatic relations across the Third World, and it has again sought to underpin them with an assistance program.

Focusing on short-term projects and training programs, it draws 60% of its $25-million aid budget from the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and other countries, which underwrite Israeli programs as part of their own aid efforts. The Israeli Foreign Ministry draws on 19 institutions, ranging from Israel’s universities to its trade unions. And Israeli exporters find their sales increase as the aid program expands.

“We haven’t forgotten what happened after the ’73 war when many Third World states severed relations,” Beilin said. “Assistance programs are not a substitute for political relations, but they are a very important safety net. They are also a moral component of our relationships--it is important that Israel identifies itself with the Third World and helps where it can.”

How Israel Shares Its Expertise With the World

Some statistics indicating the reach of Israel’s foreign assistance program: Trainees in Israel in 1992: 2,364 from 90 countries Trainees in Israeli courses taught abroad: 2,891 in 28 countries Long-term advisory projects: 28 in 21 countries Short-term consultancy projects: 94 in 34 countries Long-term research projects for developing countries: 24 in 15 countries

Of the trainees in Israel last year, the most numerous were:

Philippines: 125

Egypt: 114

El Salvador: 102

Kenya: 93

Colombia: 91

China: 75

For courses offered abroad, the top ones in terms of trainees:

Philippines: 330

Jamaica: 227

Honduras: 227

Nepal: 226

Kenya: 198

Source: Times staff reports