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Ireland — for an expansion involving
an investment of up to $3.5 billion.
It would be the biggest direct for-
eign investment in Israel, far outstrip-
ping Intel's original $1.6 billion
investment in Fab 18.
Yet although the existing plant has
already created about 3,500 jobs,
unemployment is still running high
in Kiryat Gat, at 10 percent. Local
politicians are hard pressed to explain
why projects like Fab 18 are good for
the community. Many residents say
Intel is actually widening socioeco-
nomic gaps between rich and poor in
this town.
"Intel has not yet managed to
change the cycle of unemployment
here; since people who have been laid
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ishing 10 percent of Intel's current
workforce would be located in the
Jewish state, where it first invested
in 1974.
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as an incentive for the local commu-
nity.
"We carried out this project faster,
on target cost and with better yields
than what is done in America," says
Maxine Fassberg, Fab 18's engineering
manager. Intel, she adds, is playingan
important role in the community,
with engineers helping the elderly and
contributing to education.
Intel recently hired 73 of 75 young
students from Kiryat Gat who partici-
pated in an Intel-enhanced school
curriculum, with stronger emphasis
on physics and math.
"One of the problems in a place
like this is that capable youngsters
tend to leave the town," says Fassberg.
"A program like this helps them stay."
Some workers say Intel has
changed their lives. Yossi Gal, manag-
er of a small manufacturing line at
Fab 18, had a similar job at a nearby
air conditioning factory. He recently
hired two Kiryat Gat graduates of the
Intel program.
"I have gained an enormous
amount personally, both from discov-
ering a new world and seeing the dif-
ferences in managerial culture," says .
Gal, who lives on a nearby kibbutz. "I
think Intel has also contributed to the
whole environment here, in terms of
encouraging people to strive for quali-
ty and excellence."
However, of the 1,700 workers
employed directly by Intel, and
another 1,700 indirect jobs created in
everything from catering services to
construction, Deputy Mayor Gabay
says only about 600 are from Kiryat
Gat, a town of 52,000.
"Intel is a joke," grumbles Shuki
Azoulay, 25, who worked for a com-
pany subcontracted by Intel but was
laid off when the project ended.
"It has not helped improve the
standard of living or the unemploy-
ment situation. It's all just public rela-
tions."
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis
face a similar situation in the high-
tech era. It is also one of the biggest
domestic challenges facing Prime
Minister Ehud Barak, who came to
power promising to create 300,000
jobs and reduce unemployment from
about 9 percent.
Yet among the high-tech commu-
nity, which is desperate for skilled
workers, and among the low-tech
job seekers desperate for a liveli-
hood, there is a feeling that the gov-
ernment has no idea how to inte-
grate workers like Azoulay into the
new economy.

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