Israel Freight Transport Report Q2 2010 Market Report
- In late February 2010, news emerged that Israel’s cabinet was to hold a meeting to decide the fate of the country’s Transport Plan, which was reportedly going to be allocated only half of the originally planned budget. Israel’s daily newspaper Globes cited unnamed senior officials involved with the plan, who said that the budget allocated for projects in railways and roads was cut to ILS25bn (US$6.6bn) to ILS 27bn (US$7.2bn). This is reportedly half of the budget requested by advocates of the transport plan, led by Ori Yogev, the economic adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Globes reported that the finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, had objected to the original budget and so the revised budget is the result of a compromise between the two sides. According to the allocation proposed, the budget will primarily be allocated to projects that are ready for construction, while future projects will be planned, but financed at a later time. Projects due to be financed by the state are: the Jezreel Valley railway between Hadera and Beit She’an; the Acre-Carmiel railways; and the extension of the Cross Israel Highway. According to a report by newspaper Haaretz, out of the eight railway plans (proposed by the office of the prime minister), four have been postponed under the final plan. This is a blow to Israel Railways’ development plan, which had envisioned every town with more than 50,000 residents to be connected to the railway network.
Mass Starvation and Displacement in Syria
Bechor noted that Syria's predicament throws into sharp relief the reasons for its desire to exert sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
He noted that Syria previous transferred "one million Syrian citizens to Lebanon in order to take over its economy" in establishing its occupation of that country, and theorized that Syria wants control over Israel's north-eastern territory in order to use it as a springboard to take control over the water resources of Israel's lake of Galilee (Kinneret).
"Bashar Assad dreams of filling the Golan with one million Syrians," wrote Bechor, "and then northern Israel will be in his hands; when he wishes to do so, he will prompt 'resistance' and then roll his eyes to the heavens and declare that he doesn't know who did it."
According to Yoram Ettinger, a former Israeli career diplomat and a consultant on US-Israel relations, "Syrian control of the Golan watershed — located on the present cease fire line along the eastern Golan Heights mountain ridge — would pollute the Kinneret waters and make it easy to divert its water sources," and would cost Israel control over 30% of its current water resources.
Earlier this year, Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman warned Assad that any aggression against Israel would lead to the toppling of his regime.
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