tel aviv he has ridden in a cycle rally in the emirates recruited star cyclist chris froome to israels tour de france team and was mentor to the first israeli formula one driverisraelicanadian billionaire sylvan adams is playing the sports card to try to change the image of israel as mired in conflict and to promote its normalisation with the arab worldthe israel that i know and love is not the israel that is often shown in the media he said so i feel that there is a very distorted image of israelhis latest coup came with the announcement thursday that froome would at the end of this season join his israel startup nation cycle team the first israeli squad set to compete in the tour de france which froome has won four timesadams himself a keen cyclist arrived for an afp interview on a competition bike his round sunglasses veiling azure eyesfor the camera he rides a few laps around the woodenfloored velodrome he has had built to international standards in tel aviv the only one in the middle eastborn in quebec the real estate tycoon immigrated to israel five years ago learned hebrew and established himself as a goto guy for proisrael soft powerforget the conflict the wars adams prefers to talk about the economy startups democracy tolerance and also getting positive publicity for the jewish state where he is returning to his rootsbringing football superstar lionel messi to tel aviv last november was his doing as was the giro ditalia bicycle race in jerusalem in 2018when the williams formula one racing team in january announced frenchisraeli roy nissany as its new test driver adams described himself as president of the roy nissany formula one management groupnissanys f1 car will display the israeli flag and adamss israel startup nation logoim trying to appeal to very large audiences said adams i dont want to convince people one at a time its just too slow and im too oldas an example he cites a billion viewers in 2018 for the stages of the giro in the holy landsport to build bridges between nations it is a cause in sync with israeli foreign policy which seeks in particular to forge links with the gulf monarchieswhen us president donald trumps soninlaw jared kushner presented the economic components of trumps middle east peace plan in bahrain last year adams was in the israeli delegationhe said he was invited to meet sheikh nasser bin hamad al khalifa a son of bahrains ruler and also a cycling enthusiasti went to the palace we had a private meeting i told him about the velodrome and sent him an invitation he saidyet nothing in his past seemed to foretell adams having a ringside seat at these middle east eventshis father marcel abramovich fled the nazi labour camps in romania to palestine then under british rule which he quickly left for france and then quebec at the turn of the 1950san employer there became alarmed at the