June 21, 2016 edition
maaf email atau password anda salah
FollOwing the highway going from Jerusalem to the Negev in southern Israel, I was reminded of the green landscape of Java's rice fields. Areas that were once desert show no trace of what we often read about in the scriptures. Extensive, fertile fields of wheat and potatoes dominate both sides of the road. These are interspersed with orchards of citrus fruits, pomegranates, cherries and avocados.
At the end of March, during my journey with four other journalists from Indonesia, Israeli foreign ministry's deputy spokesman Oren Rozenblat, who accompanied us, proudly explained it all. He said that while many in other countries cut down their forests, perhaps Israel is the only country that ensures it has many more trees today than 100 years ago. When his forefathers began arriving there from all over the world, he said, the region now controlled by Israel was nothing more than a barren desert. "With technology, we changed all that," he declared.
Independent journalism needs public support. By subscribing to Tempo, you will contribute to our ongoing efforts to produce accurate, in-depth and reliable information. We believe that you and everyone else can make all the right decisions if you receive correct and complete information. For this reason, since its establishment on March 6, 1971, Tempo has been and will always be committed to hard-hitting investigative journalism. For the public and the Republic.