josh007

It's a soft 3-iron shot between miracles along the Sea of Galilee, where Jesus of Nazareth walked on water and New York-based Americas Partners LLP General Partner Joseph Bernstein is spending $46 million to build the first 36-hole championship golf course in Israel.

"This is God's proving ground and the most exciting deal I've done in my life," Bernstein says of the Galilee Golf Club seaside course atop Mount Arbel. Construction begins after the holy days of Passover and Easter, with celebrated golf architect Robert Trent Jones Jr. sculpting fairways from the "green pastures" that inspired King David to compose the 23rd Psalm and where the multitudes gathered beneath myrtle trees to hear the Christian savior deliver his Sermon on the Mount.

"It took 10 years to get the Israeli government to approve the deal," says Bernstein, whose past real-estate developments include the Crown Building and Americas Tower in Manhattan. "The project is unique," the 58-year-old attorney adds. "It's like building a golf course on Mount Rushmore, and that doesn't get close to the historical significance of Mount Arbel."

For Israel, the significance of a championship course with the cachet to lure marquee players such as Tiger Woods, stage professional tour events and host affluent corporate golf outings flows even deeper.

"Mount Arbel is the symbol for the booming Israeli economy," Bernstein says. "The Galilee Golf Club is a leitmotif for a country that has rid itself of isolation to become part of the global economy."

Shapira says the result will be 800 new jobs and thousands of golf balls rolling around the holy mountain, along with the 4 million eggs the farm's chickens lay annually.

While this is great news by itself, I have more for you guys, in the same article it goes on to mention this: Retired Israel Air Force General Ran Ronen, chairman of Aquaria Ltd., a $300m. golf and entertainment complex being constructed over the next three years with Americas Partners in the Red Sea town of Eilat, describes his investment in the future as a "cold and calculated risk," given the continued failure of Israel and its neighbors to implement a peace accord.

That means Aquaria project is still a GO!