Re: "New Israel" (Re: Don Wood -- IPG)

Screwy as the New Israel idea may seem, it's been around a while. There was talk of such a plan in the early 90s to settle Russian Jews in the US Southwest, using decommissioned military bases as new Ellis Islands, kibbutzim, trailer trashheaps. As was eventually done in the Israel (our firm surveyed housing sites for the latter and learned of the alternative US plan then). We were told that the promise of Amer-Indian casino gambling made southwest real estate too attractive to devalue with refugee camps, so the idea was deferred it until the gambling gold rush eased, or a Mid-East conflagration kicked in an emergency relocation plan devised by DoD (no surprise there, DoD contingency-plans the globe).