Friday, June 12, 1981
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
I Israeli Rail System: Technological Advance
Threatened by Troubled Financial Climate
TT EL
HUGH ORGEL
EL AVIV (JTA) — The
railroad was the stepchild of
the Israeli economy for the
first two decades of its his-
tory, just as it had been in
the five decades which pre-
ceded it. The first railroad
in the Middle East was built
with Jewish capital in 1892,
to link the port of Jaffa with
Jerusalem.
But from then until 1916
-lie Turks, and from 1916 to
18 the British Mandatory
thorities, used the rail-
way network only for mili-
tary logistics purposes, to
"control Palestine."
It was this reason which
led the Jewish yishuv to
build up such a strong net-
work of cooperative road
transport services, for both
passengers and freight.
Only in recent years
has a serious effort been
made to lay down and
operate a modern rail
service, partly becaUse of
the vast amounts of min-
erals now being moved to
the ports for export from
the Negev, and more
lately because of the
ever-rising costs of fuel
for road transportation.
Israel Railways is now in
a position to build new lines
quickly and efficiently. But
the engineers and planners
are now held up by budget-
ary restrictions.
"We have to work at less
than half speed, spreading
over three years the work
,we could do in just over one
year, because of the
budget," according to Israel
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State Railways general
manager Zvi Tsafriri.
The railroad's latest proj-
ect is construction of a new
21 kilometer line and re-
building another 27 kilome-
ter stretch on the old coastal
line built by British Gen.
Allenby in 1917, to afford a
direct link from Kiryat Gat
to the port of Ashdod, shor-
tening the existing round-
about route by 35 kilomet-
ers and avoiding the
bottleneck of the Mandat-
ory Lydda junction mar-
shalling yards.
The work is made es-
sential by the planned
doubling of Negev min-
eral exports, mainly
potash and phosphates,
from 2.5 million tons to
5.1 million tons within the
next three years.
The railway engineers
,
and planners are proud of
their work teams, made up
of Arabs, veteran Israelis
and new immigrants,
mainly from the Soviet
Union.
"We have sent our people
abroad to study modern
methods. They come back
home, to improve on what
they have learned and we
are already exporting our
new know-how and techni-
cal improvements to our
former teachers in West
Germany and elsewhere,"
they say.
While the State Railways
do the planning and actual
rail laying themselves, ear-
thwork construction of em-
bankments and bridges is
farmed out to 10 private
contractors, working under
railroad engineers control
and supervision. The new
Knesset Defeats Criticism
of Begin Vow to Christians
JERUSALEM (JTA) —
An opposition motion criti-
cal of the government's
secret commitment to help
Christian forces in Lebanon
if they were attacked by
Syria from the air was
stricken from the Knesset
agenda by a vote of 52-36
last week.
The motion was pre-
sented by former Premier
Yitzhak Rabin, speaking for
the Labor Alignment, who
said Premier Menahem Be-
gin's pledge to the Chris-
tians in 1978, without con-
sulting either the Cabinet
or the Knesset was of "un-
precedented gravity."
The commitment came to
light only after Israeli jets
shot down two Syrian
helicopters on April 30 dur-
ing a Syrian assault on the
Christian-held town of
Zahle in central Lebanon.
According to Rabin, it was
tantamount to giving a
third party (the Christians)
the right to decide when and
how the Israel Air Force
would act in Lebanon.
Moreover, Rabin asserted,
Begin violated the most
fundamental principle of
parliamentary democracy
by not seeking the approval
of the Knesset or, at least, of
its Foreign Affairs and Se-
curity Committee.
Begin retorted that the
decision was made. after
(where themes a walill
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consultations between
himself and Moshe
Dayan and Ezer Weizman
who were at the time the
Foreign Minister and De-
fense Minister respec-
tively.
He said the pledge had
been that the Israeli gov-
ernment would "consider
seriously and supportively"
whether to send its air force
into action if the .Lebanese
Christians were attacked by
the Syrian. Air -Force and
would "very probably agree
to do so."
He denied Labor charges
that the Israeli pledge
encouraged the Christians
to provoke the Syrians. "For
three years following that
pledge nothing happened,"
Begin said.
"Heletz" line will cost $25
million, but because of the
budget the work must be
spread over three years.
Construction could be
completed in less than
that, and the laying of the
rails is well under way.
"We are forced to work
on laying rails at half-a-
kilometer a day instead
of the kilometer a day we
could really, and then for
only 42 days to lay tracks
on embankments and
roadbeds the contractors
have taken 18 months to
complete," according to
Kalman Slutzker, the
chief engineer.
The actual rails, imported
from France, are laid on
monoblock reinforced con-
crete ties (sleepers) made in
Ashdod and laid down in
groups of five, at the exact
distance required by an Is-
raeli invention. The com-
plete 18-meter rail and tie
section is then lifted aboard
flatbed rail trucks and sent
to the end of the line where
they are lifted and moved
forward, connected up and
the train moves on another
18 meters.
Another innovation is the
on-spot welding of the rails
into lengths of about one
mile, to afford a smoother
ride with less wear to the
rolling-stock.
It will be nearly another
two years before the miner-
als start rolling along the
new line. But the railroad
engineer's are already be-
ginning to plan the fulfill-
ment of their main dream —
the Negev railroad to Eilat.
WASHINGTON
Newsweek magazine re-
ported this week that Egyp-
tian President Anwar Sadat
won the admiration of a
skeptical Ariel Shron, Is-
rael's agriculture minister,
during Sharon's recent visit
to Egypt.
Newsweek says Sharon
was taken on a tour of Egyp-
tian forces along the Libyan
border, and the magazine
speculated - that Egypt
would like Israeli support if
Egypt has to battle arch-foe
Libya.
The magazine said Sha-
ron would probably be de-
fense minister if Menahem
Begin is re-elected in Israel
and Sharon's familiarity
with Egypt's strategic posi-
tion would be indispensa-
ble.
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