The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette published “Seen in Israel: Cementing Trade Deals Good for State,” an op-ed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders on her recent economic development trip to Israel and the United Arab Emirates:
My dad likes to say that Israel is the one place in the world that you visit for the first time and feel like you’re coming home. America has a deep, unbreakable bond with Israel and its people–culturally, politically, and economically–and I had the opportunity to further cement that relationship on my recent trade mission to Israel.
It certainly doesn’t hurt that my dad, former Gov. Mike Huckabee, is now serving as President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel. Arkansas’ relationship with Israel has never been stronger. We recently announced that our state is purchasing up to $50 million in Israeli bonds–on top of the $55 million the Arkansas Treasury already holds–to both show our support and make a sound investment in one of the world’s strongest economies. Arkansas’ investments in Israeli bonds earned our state more than $610,000 last quarter alone.
I signed the Judea-Samaria Act, requiring state government documents to refer to the region west of the Jordan River by its historical and biblical name, Judea and Samaria. And I provided $188,000 to Jewish places of worship in our state through the Right to Worship grant program to protect Jewish Arkansans from the alarming rise in antisemitism we’ve seen since Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
For their part, the Israeli company Rafael recently announced a partnership with the U.S. defense contractor RTX to build a new $63 million facility in Camden that will create 60 new jobs and help build components for Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system that saved thousands of lives during Israel’s 12-day war against Iran. Aerospace and defense is now our state’s largest export industry, and in meetings with Rafael and other defense and business leaders, I encouraged them to make additional investments in Arkansas.
I also sat down with Israeli leaders in agricultural tech, who have literally made the desert bloom, and learned about how we can further support Arkansas agriculture. To cap off the visit, I signed a memorandum of understanding between Arkansas and the National Technological Innovation Authority of Israel, committing our state and their country to deepening our ties in research, defense, and other areas.
Throughout the trip, I spent time with leaders from both the United States and Israel, including Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. My one takeaway is this: America’s relationship with our closest ally will only grow stronger, and Arkansas’ economy can be a major beneficiary.
After Israel, my team traveled to the United Arab Emirates, another country where growth and technology are accelerating at a tremendous pace. I’m not sure how many people in Dubai could place Arkansas on the map before we visited, but the business and government leaders we met with definitely know about Arkansas now–and more importantly, know we’re a state with low taxes, business-friendly leadership, a strong workforce and energy capacity to support their investments in AI infrastructure. In a deal with President Trump, the UAE’s sovereign wealth fund committed $1.4 trillion in investment in the United States over the next 10 years, and Arkansas is now competing for part of that investment and the many jobs it will create.
In both Israel and the UAE, I found very willing potential buyers for Arkansas’ agriculture products. At a time when our farmers are hurting, we know that opening new markets is one of the biggest ways to help.
Business development trips like this have a strong track record for Arkansas. Earlier this summer, I visited the Paris Air Show to recruit aerospace and defense companies to invest in our state. That trip is already paying off, with L3Harris Technologies announcing a $193 million investment in Camden to build solid rocket motors and create 50 new jobs. A previous trip I led to the Paris Air Show resulted in a $100 million expansion for Dassault Falcon in Little Rock, and the creation of 800 new jobs.
I have no doubt that our meetings in Israel and the UAE will yield similar results.
But cementing relationships in Israel and the UAE isn’t just about investment and jobs. It’s about positioning Arkansas as the leader we should be. With our growing economy, low taxes and regulation, improving education system, strong workforce, and abundant land and energy, we are staking our claim that there is no better place in the world right now than Arkansas to start or grow a business.
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