Israeli Minister in row over energy ‘miracle’

Press, 17 March 1982, Page 9

Israeli Minister in row over energy ‘miracle’

NZPA-Reuter Tel Aviv An Israeli Minister who claimed to have sponsored "the biggest technological breakthrough since the wheel” was yesterday under Opposition pressure to resign after failing to persuade scientists that the invention would dramatically reduce energy costs. The Economics Minister (Mr Yaacov Meridor), a longtime friend of the Prime Minister (Mr Menachem Begin). has been at the centre of a public storm ever since he promised nine months ago to rid the world of its energy problems. The Minister is a wealthy businessman whose association with Mr Begin dates back to the period of underground fighting preceding the foundation of the State of Israel.

Only a week before the General Election last June,

he said he had financed a miraculous energy-producing device.

Many Israelis, expecting the device to be unveiled, were surprised by headlines in yesterday’s press depicting the man who first proposed the idea to Mr Meridor as an imposter who has been convicted for fraud. Mr Meridor, who has been quoted as saying that the invention will “force Arab sheikhs to drink their oil,” said yesterday he would not resign despite the press reports.

The Israeli press said yesterday that the man who built the device was Danny Berman, aged 47, who was convicted in 1980 of pretending to be a doctor of physics and an Army major.

Asked to comment on the reports, Mr Berman told the Army's radio station that the Economics Minister was not

aware of his past record. “But even after the reports appeared today, Mr Meridor assured me that he distinguished between my past and my idea in which he still believes,” Mr Berman .said. W’hen Mr Meridor first made his statement last June, he came under Opposition charges that the whole affair was a hoax designed to boost the popularity of Mr Begin’s Likud bloc in the elections.

Israel Television last Friday transmitted a film showing the machine at the centre of the controversy. It was said to increase the production of electricity from existing fuels.

Most ot the scientists asked by State television to give an initial opinion on the machine said it could at best slightly increase the efficiency of present energy pro-

duction methods, and even that would take years.

Mr Meridor earlier met the Energy Minister (Mr Yitzhak Berman) and gave him details of the idea. Mr Meridor later told reporters that he may have been carried away when he first described the potential of the machine.

The Energy Minister said yesterday: “The identity and background of the inventor is of no concern to us. The only question is whether the invention is practical and can be used commercially.”

At a meeting with Mr Begin yesterday after the publication of the press reports, the Prime Minister advised him not to resign. Cabinet sources said.

Mr Meridor told journalists later that he was still convinced the device would prove itself, adding he had no intention of resigning