Despite Israel's small population (a mere 2.5% of the United States' population), the Jewish state is a world leader in the technology driving the world's economy. In fact, cutting edge technology from Israel is an important driver of major industry in Texas, such as agriculture and energy. As a matter of fact, nearly 100 companies that trade on the U.S. stock exchange are Israeli having a total capitalization of $117 billion. Furthermore, the U.S. has a major presence in Israel’s economy evidenced by that fact that that American companies account for two-thirds of the multinational research and development firms in Israel. This innovation is so essential to the future of the American economy that the small country of Israel is a critical partner of superpowers like the United States.
The United States Congress drew attention to the important economic windfalls of Israeli innovation in late March. A bipartisan House Resolution 218 was introduced in Congress in late March to encourage further economic collaboration between Israel and the United Stes. H.R. 218 was presented by Representative Ted Poe (R) of Texas and Representative Ted W. Lieu (D-CA) to “Support the exploration of new agreements with Israel, including in the fields of energy, water, agriculture, medicine, neurotechnology, and cybersecurity.” [1] The resolution currently remains in the introduction phase, however, its passage would serve as a bipartisan affirmation of the strong economic bond between both countries. In the meantime, to continue to foster this important economic bond, states such as Texas should focus on the fields where they economically overlap with Israel and pursue trade and investment agreements in those areas with Israeli businesses.
[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/218
Sources: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/feb/16/us-israel-economic-bond-needs-to-be-strong/ https://lieu.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/reps-lieu-poe-introduce-bipartisan-legislation-strengthen-us-israel https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/218
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/115/hres218