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