Byline: Jay Bushinsky, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

JERUSALEM - An American-Israeli entrepreneur has been given the green light to mass market electric cars, a potential environmental breakthrough with global implications that could also reduce Israel's need for imported oil.

Shai Agassi, 38, who made his name in California's Silicon Valley, recently won an endorsement from Israeli President Shimon Peres to put electrical cars on the road. They would be made by France's Renault and Japan's Nissan.

"Today is a new age with new dangers, and the greatest danger is that of oil," Mr. Peres said in backing Mr. Agassi's initiative.

"It is the greatest polluter of our age, ...