Gov. Bruce Rauner touted security cooperation and met with top Israeli officials to discuss mutual security interests during his official visit to that country earlier this month, The Jerusalem Post reported.
Rauner, during what was his first official trip to Israel, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other top Israeli officials, a Nov. 2 release said. The governor headed a delegation of University of Illinois administrators to promote interconnectedness between the university and Israel's top engineering universities, with an eye toward making the Illinois Innovation Network a global endeavor, the release said.
During his meeting with Netanyahu, Rauner said that 80 to 90 percent of their conversation was about economic issues, though security issues were also discussed, especially cybersecurity, The Jerusalem Post article said.
Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner
Rauner also told Israeli officials that his delegation sought to expand the University of Illinois' collaboration and partnership with great research universities worldwide and said he had a personal No. 1 goal of expanding the collaboration with the universities in Israel.
The university, with its flagship campus in Champaign-Urbana, is expected to build a new campus in downtown Chicago via collaboration with the University of Chicago and Northwestern University, and Rauner said he hoped Israeli universities would also be involved.
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