ISRAEL DIGEST
Specially compiled by The Jerusalem Post
—$1 EQUALS 2.8630 NIS (shekels) - Close Price 10/15/93 —
Is It Really The Gap?
Police seized jeans, T-shirts
and other trendy items carried
by the World of Gap store in
Jerusalem, a retail outlet
which The Gap company in
0 the United States charges is
importing and selling its prod-
ucts without authorization.
Eran Soroker, an attorney
for the firm which represents
The Gap in Israel, said the
items seized were imported
from the Philippines and oth-
er locations and re-labeled, in-
dicating that they had been
produced in the United States.
If the World of Gap compa-
ny has, in fact, misrepresent-
ed the origin of its clothing,
Mr. Soroker said the compa-
ny could be guilty not only
of misleading customers but
of avoiding tariffs.
I
Hotel Is Now Holiday Inn
He said the days of families
owning large tracts of real es-
tate are over. Meanwhile,
Howard L. Green, chairman of
Troy-based Howard L. Green &
Associates Inc., which provides
Holtzman and Silverman
operate several apartment
and industrial units. Despite the soft market, they are continually expanding.
will provide opportunities for
of return is better than treasury
owners of smaller holdings.
bonds.
"For developers who are in a
`The Taubman money went
total bind, they can sell their
to lenders and what it did was
holdings of one or two malls to
get him out of debt. Everybody
large developers who have re-
is doing this," Mr. Green said.
The Jerusalem Holiday Inn
Crowne Plaza, which until
last week was the
Jerusalem Hilton, is plan-
ning to build an official gov-
ernment guest house
' adjacent to the hotel.
The guest house, which is
described as the equivalent
of Blair House, the Wash-
'
ington residence used to
house top-level visitors of
the U.S. government, is be-
ing planned in coordination
with the Foreign Ministry.
It is to occupy some 4,000
square meters in an area
now used as an auxiliary
parking lot.
Firm Wins U.S. Contract
A Kiryat Shmona company,
Ramim Engineering Ltd., has
received a $4.9 million con-
tract, issued by the U.S. Army
Troop Support Command, to
build two types of communi-
cation shelters. The contract
carries an additional option to
purchase, valued at $2.6 mil-
lion.
Communication shelters
are secure, shielded mobile
containers sometimes used as
control rooms with which ra-
dio waves cannot interfere.
Ramim, a subsidiary of
Koor Industries, beat out six
American competing compa-
nies to win the three-year con-
tract. Among the competitors
were the biggest names in
shelter manufacturers such as
Gishner, Atlantic and Matex.
Army Chooses Rafael
Rafael, a subsidiary of Israel
Military Industries and its
U.S. partner, Martin Mariet-
ta, have been chosen by the
U.S. Army to supply reactive
add-on armor plating for
Bradley armored personnel
Michael Horowitz understands
well the impact of a soft real estate market
site evaluation and selection
services for developers, lenders,
retailers and municipalities,
said the rise in real estate stock
sales among large developers
cently gone public and who pay
off all their debts," Mr. Green
said. "If the return on these
plans is 7 percent, well, in-
vestors line up because the rate
"It gets developers off the hook.
The whole process makes the
industry much more liquid so
guys aren't out there building
rich and being cash poor." ❑
Real Estate Slump Hurts
Allied Jewish Campaign
—
A
s area developers strug-
gle to cope with a sus-
tained downturn in the
real estate and construc-
tion markets both here and
across the country, the Allied
Jewish Campaign has felt the
repercussions.
According to figures provid-
ed by the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit, the real
estate division of the Campaign
had contributions of $5.2 mil-
lion in each of the last two
years, down from $5.6 million
in 1990.
Total contributions for the
1992 Campaign were $26 mil-
Penalties May Be Less
An official involved in negoti-
ations with the Americans
over the reduction of U.S. loan
guarantees for expenditures
over the Green Line said the
$437 million cut is far from fi-
nal. The official said the gov-
ernment agreed in principle
with the Americans to a cut of
R.J. KING SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
lion. Pledges for the 1993 Cam-
paign totaled $27 million.
If 1993 projections hold true,
donations this year from the
real estate division should re-
main at $5.2 million, said Allan
Gelfond, Federation Campaign
director.
SLUMP page 37
carriers.
The potential sales to the
U.S. Army for this armor could
go as high as $400 million,
Rafael spokesman Noah
Shachar said.
$130 million.
Although taken by surprise,
senior government officials
downplayed the economic im-
pact of the $437 million re-
duction in U.S. loan
guarantees, a cut of nearly a I
quarter of the $2 billion the
government was planning to
raise next year.
End To Boycott Asked
The Coordinating Commit-
tee of Economic Organiza-
tions has asked the
government to put pressure
on the Arabs to cease their
boycott against Israel.
"It should not happen
that non-governmental in-
ternational organizations
have already begun to plan
funding projects in the area
without the cessation of the
boycott," said group presi-
dent Dan Propper, who is
also head of the Israel Man-
ufacturers Association.
c)
0,
Lr)
CC
LJJ
35