A cooperative triangle involving Jordan, Israel and the US turns its attention to producing alternative fuels for the two Mideast neighbors.

Once a barren strip of desert, the Arava today has some 600 farms supplying more than 60 percent of Israel’s exports of fresh vegetables and 10% of ornamentals.

A workers district in Tel Aviv provides the unlikely backdrop for a burgeoning contemporary and street art world.

Clients include Golda Meir, David Ben Gurion and Chaim Weizmann, but now Kastiel, Israel’s most famous name in fine furniture since 1942, is opening a new line geared to smaller budgets.