Israel to unveil ambitious transport plan

by David Harris

Israel is a small country, just the size of New Jersey, but getting from point A to point B is not always an easy experience.

Indeed, for years, economists have argued that the lack of fast, efficient transport routes from Tel Aviv to other parts of the country has hampered Israel's economic growth.

Now the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to unveil a program estimated to be worth 13.5 billion U.S. dollars and aimed to address that issue. The 20-year package is slated to be presented to the government later this month.

However, the scheme has its critics even before it is made official. Fans of trains complain that it focuses heavily on roads, and vice versa. One government minister told Xinhua that as much investment is needed in developing communities in distant areas from Tel Aviv as is required to create the transport infrastructure to hook them up with the country's economic powerhouse.

CURRENT SITUATION

Over the last few years, with the country's bid to enter the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of developed nations, Israel's road and rail infrastructure has undergone remarkable change.

A fast toll road now links the north and the south, the country boasts a commuter rail service that brings workers to and from the Tel Aviv region, and a program of interchange development means that lines of traffic are getting shorter.

On the other hand, commuters find plenty to grumble about. They say that the roads around the Tel Aviv region are a nightmare. If one does not leave home before 6:30 a.m., there is no point in driving into Tel Aviv until after 9.

Likewise, while the trains are a great alternative along the heavily-populated coast, once one moves inland there are vast tracts that are unconnected to the railroads. Indeed, a fast service between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem that was slated to come online in 2013 now will be ready in 2018, at the earliest. Similarly, the tramway being constructed in Jerusalem is already three to four years behind schedule.

The latest plan, to be unveiled by Netanyahu, has been accompanied by media reports of serious differences between the Prime Minister's Office and the Finance Ministry. The latter holds the purse strings and is only prepared to release them if it is assured that the investment is worthwhile.

These differences were the focus of a meeting on Monday between representatives of these two government bodies along with a team from the Transport Ministry.

ALTERNATIVES

Having seen the dispute between the ministries grow, representatives of what Israel calls its peripheral areas have been trying to sway the argument in their own favor. Israel has two key peripheries: the Galilee in the north, which takes in the biblical Lake Tiberias, and the Negev in the south, which incorporates one of Israel's largest cities, Beer Sheva.

Shmuel Rifman, head of the Negev Development Authority, wrote to Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz on Monday, suggesting that instead of arguing over which new projects to adopt, the government should pump the money it is freeing up into plans that have already been approved for both road and rail.

"The argument between the prime minister and finance minister is a waste of time," he told Xinhua on Monday, stressing that it would be a shame to reinvent the wheel, when there are perfectly good plans to implement.

In his letter, Rifman proposed his own 4-billion-dollar plan for the Negev. He said that this is what the desert region requires in terms of rail and road.

However, Israel's Minister for Minority Rights Avishay Braverman, himself a pioneer of development in the Negev, said that simply laying new tarmac and track is not what the Negev needs. It is only half the battle, he said.

In his opinion, as much money needs to be spent on developing a new city in the Negev and on improving the Bedouin villages in the region, as is required for the roads and railroads. If necessary, the budget for the project should be split in half to accommodate both elements, he said, adding that his theory applies equally to the Galilee.

Later this month, Braverman will be handing in proposals to the government designed to improve the lot of the country's Bedouin citizens.

"I'd put some of the money into transport but the remainder into employment and housing, so that while transportation is improving, the other measures of quality of life in the periphery are also improving," said Braverman.

LOOKING AHEAD

While differences remain between the various interested parties at local and national grass-roots levels, the bottom-line aim is shared by them all. They want to see a better transport system which attracts many more people to move to Israel's outlying areas.

Their views are summed up by Netanyahu's spokesman, Mark Regev. "The prime minister is committed to bringing the north and the south closer to the center of the country through a thorough modernization of the country's rail and road system. In a country as small as Israel there should be no periphery," said Regev.

However, Netanyahu and every other politician knows that Israel 's population is increasing rapidly and the need for housing, employment and health services is simply going to rise.

While the latest plan looks 20 years ahead, analysts said that whatever it includes is likely to be dwarfed by the population over the next 50 years. It means that further roads, railroads and cities will have to be constructed farther from Tel Aviv than ever, and that necessitates decades more of what Israel has been doing since its establishment in 1948: turning the sands green, and reclaiming the desert to make room for the cement mixers.

Source: Xinhua