OPINION: New Mexico can learn from Israel

Leadership means looking beyond your borders. I didn’t travel to Israel on taxpayer dollars, at the request of a lobbyist or with a dime from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

I went because I have always wanted to see the country and understand how a nation under constant threat manages to thrive. What I witnessed was more than resilience. It was a masterclass in turning scarcity into strength through technology, vigilance and unwavering national purpose.

And the truth is: New Mexico has more in common with Israel than we think. The lessons I brought home aren’t abstract. They’re practical, urgent and deeply relevant to the future of our state.

Invest in water technology. Drought is not a future problem for New Mexico; it’s the ground we walk on. But it doesn’t have to be a death sentence. Israel transformed from water poverty to surplus through desalination and reclaimed water, not with magic, but with focus.

Here in New Mexico, we’re sitting on 2 to 4 billion acre-feet of brackish groundwater — over 650 trillion gallons — according to our own Bureau of Geology. That’s real water, trapped below us. What we lack isn’t potential. It’s commitment.

With national labs, top-tier universities and firsthand drought experience, New Mexico should be leading the country in inland desalination and water reuse. We already have the science. What we need is the will to scale it. Science and technology aren’t luxuries; they’re economic development and public safety.

I saw how public–private models can turn university research into job-creating innovation. We should be funding research, incentivizing startups and building public testbeds for water treatment, sustainable agriculture and detection technology. That’s how you keep jobs local and resilience real.

The alternative is relying on other people’s solutions while our farms dry up and our communities shrink. Let’s be the exporter, not the buyer. Vigilance matters. Security isn’t a slogan, it’s a daily discipline.

Around the world, terror groups have used tunnels, asymmetric warfare and surprise tactics to overwhelm borders. The only durable response is layered detection and real-time monitoring. We should be asking our federal partners for access to the best detection and surveillance tools, while investing state funds in pilot programs that protect our own borders, especially from trafficking and cross-border criminal networks. Tunnel detection, sensor arrays, rapid-response integration, these aren’t military secrets. They’re smart infrastructure.

We can deploy them here in New Mexico, where the stakes are painfully real. The Second Amendment is not theoretical. In Israel, frightened families hid in safe rooms, locked behind steel doors, only to be smoked out and slaughtered. They had no means to defend themselves against this large-scale attack. The military couldn’t come in time. And evil doesn’t wait. The right to self-defense is not a political slogan. It’s a human right, especially when the unthinkable becomes real. We must protect that right here in New Mexico, without compromise. Disarming law-abiding citizens doesn’t stop terror. It guarantees victims.

What I saw in Israel wasn’t just about geopolitics; it was about survival with vision. If a small country surrounded by danger can rise through technology, innovation and unapologetic preparedness, then so can we. Let’s not wait for disaster to teach us what resilience requires. Let’s build it now.

Stefani Lord, R-Sandia Park, represents District 22 in the New Mexico House of Representatives.