THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 12 Friday, November 23, 1979 Yom Kippur War and Israel's High Inflation Tourists Observe Jews Have Made a Relic of Tel Aviv Bus Station Praying at the Wall By SIMON GRIVER tion in Tel Aviv came to a standstill in December 1975, with the work only two-thirds completed. Four years later, what was meant to be the largest bus station in the world has been sadly reduced to perhaps the world's largest_ "white elephant." The imposing but forgot- ten structure looks forlornly down on the cramped old bus station that it was sup; posed to replace. The sorry saga goes back to the late 1960s, when Tel Aviv's existing central bus station was (and indeed still is) bursting at the seams. Digest TEL AVIV — Due to lack of money, all construction on the new central bus sta- r =MI •11111111= MI MEM% Color Israel I I PASSPORT PHOTOS: I 1 1 1 Ready while you wait 1 2fors6 bel-crest photo 1 1 I STUDIO AND CAMERA SHOP I 1 6698 Orchard Lake Rd. 1 1 West Bloomfield Plaza I I 851-5840 I THE MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR KOSHER Air Conditioned NO HOTEL (Y) Mau On The Ocean 40th to 41st St. Miami Beach VACATION FUN IN THE SUN! Newly Refurnished & Decorated Enjoy all our facilities for a wonderful vacation. Full block of Private Beach. Olympic Pool, Tennis privileges. Handball. Volleyball. Shuffleboard. Health Spa. Sauna. TV in all rooms. Nightly Entertainment, Poolside Therapeutic Whirlpool. SUPERVISED DAY CAMP FOR CHILDREN, Kiddie park. Synagogue on Premises Reserve Now For THANKSGIVING & MEW YEAR Holidays N.Y. 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GARTENBERG formerly of the Pioneer Hotel Group & Organization inquirtes are invited All meats are 0 Glatt from New York City TRIPC3MASTERS 1140 Broadway, New York (212) 689-7600 Toll Free (800) 223-7676 The limited space had run out and bus stops had overflowed into some 40 surrounding streets. Clearly, something had to be done and property ty- coon Arye Pilz, the man who financed Tel Aviv's impressive Dizengoff Center, emerged as the person to do it. The enterprising busi- nessman presented the municipality of Tel Aviv with detailed plans, not only for a bus station far larger than even New York City's Port Authority, but a structure which would also contain a vast shopping complex, as well as Israel's largest telephone exchange. Moreover, Pilz had man- aged to raise the required capital of IL115 million (then about $40 million), without any government help. When the green light was given to his scheme, he formed the Kikar Levinsky Co. to handle the operation. Pilz himself owned 49 per- cent of the new company's shares, while Egged, the na- tional bus company, con- trolled 35 percent, and the Histadrut-owned construc- tion company Solel Boneh took 15 percent. The remaining one percent was distributed between 2,000 small in- vestors who would own shops in the new com- plex. Despite not being a part- ner in the ambitious ven- ture, the government prom- ised handsome contribu- tions. Everything proceeded rapidly and by the middle of 1968 work had already begun on the new bus sta- tion's foundations. The fol- lowing five years saw the construction progress on schedule, as the spectacular structure took on its huge and impressive shape. The Yom Kippur War in October 1973, which itself caused the first stoppage in work, triggered the eco- nomic crisis which was to ruin Arye Pilz's dream. The crisis was to reach its climax towards the end of 1975, when infla- tion was soaring and building costs had more than quadrupled from the original estimate. By December, already IL300 million (then about $50 million) had been spent, and the same figure was needeU again in order to reach completion. The Kikar Levinsky capi- tal had run out several months previously, and now Solel Boneh was asked to foot the bill for all the labor costs and construction materials that they were providing. They threatened to stop work if Pilz and Egged were not able to give them guarantees for the large sums of money they were having to lay out. Pilz and Egged could give no such guarantees, and the government reaffirmed its decision not to help. As a re- sult, work on the project ceased. Shlomo Lahat, the mayor of Tel Aviv, demanded that the government nationalize the Kikar Levinsky Co. so that the vitally needed serv- ices could be completed. The government was of two minds. On one hand, they realized the desper- ate need for the new bus station, as well as the tragic waste that would result if they did not act. On the other hand, the economic situation was so grave and the public purse so stretched, that money would have to be diverted from the other crucial areas — like defense — to meet the costs. The government had made no decision by the time of the elections in May 1977. The new Likud adminis- tration agreed to finance the completion of the bus station but announced in December 1977 that they had reversed their decision because the cost had become too formidable. Meanwhile, there ap- pears to be no solution on the horizon to Tel Aviv's desperate need for a new bus station. The Dan bus cooperative, which operates Tel Aviv's local buses, and has always felt that Arye Pilz's plan is too grand, has advocated that waste ground be pur- chased at the northern and southern edges of the city, to build two, more modest bus stations. Tourists, at right, standing near the entrance to the Temple Mount, observe Jews praying at the West- ern Wall in Jerusalem. 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