From Jerusalem Post website:
he Transportation Ministry plans to build its first light rail in the West Bank, linking the central Israeli cities of Petah Tikva and Rosh Ha’ayin with the Ariel settlement.“This is good news for the continued development of the city of Ariel. It has over 20,000 residents, an industrial park and a university with 15,000 students,” said the city’s mayor, Eli Shaviro.
And there are thousands of people in communities around Ariel that consider it their central city, he said.Ariel is considered a settlement bloc – but its location deep in Samaria, some 16 kilometers over the Green Line, has given it a tenuous status on the international stage.Under prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert, the city received very few construction authorizations. Since 2011, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has significantly increased those permits, with more construction approvals occurring there than in some of the other three larger cities of Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit and Ma’aleh Adumim.Shaviro said that a train would help cement Ariel’s place as the capital of Samaria.Transpiration Minister Israel Katz has long envisioned a train in Judea and Samaria.On Thursday he gave his approval to the overall idea of the project. But planning is still in its infancy, with three alternatives on the table for the route of between 29 and 35 kilometers.One of them also includes stops in the Barkan Industrial Park and the Elkana settlements as well as in the Israeli-Arab town of Kafr Kassem.No budget has been set for the project.The move is part of a series of steps by right-wing politicians to normalize life for the 400,000 Israeli residents of Judea and Samaria, by erasing the Green Line and improving the link between the settlements and the rest of the country.“I want to thank Minister Israel Katz and his team for working together to establish and promote the city as the capital of Samaria,” Shaviro said.
What % 10,20 years ago was non-Palistians?
Dave Facebook is getting a big fat black eye here in the USA.
Quite true, another reason I don't do the Facebook, or any social media for that matter. I prefer to be a "mystery man" to anyone who isn't part of the "Trains" family.
Hey, if I can't trust you guys who can I trust?
Disclamer: I ignore Facebook most of the time; did not notice the Facebook line OR attempted to erase it and failed to do so, which has happene in some of my e-mailings. I simply copied directly from the Jerusalem Post website. And I had no agenda except to pass on this information, such as it is, as I do with all my other direct from other media postings.
While any detailed discussion of this idea that is not directly concered with the physical layout or equpment involved should be off the website completely in personal emal corresponance instead, I would like to present some facts as I know them:
1. This is an anouncement by Interior Minister Katz, member of one member party of a coalition, and I have not heard of support by other members (yet?).
2. Remember he announced we would have direct Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highspeed service this Friday, and now we know we have to wait a half-a-year approximately.
3. The line would connect with the T. A. light rail system at Petah Tiqvah, and presumambly there would be through running. There is already frequent diesel commuter service to Petah Tiqvah, a line running from T. A. to Kvar Saba, branching from the T. A. - Haifa main line at North Tel Aviv/T. A. University, eventually to be electrified.
4. The Strassburg, France, light rail system has a line to Keil, Germany; the Saurbruken diesel light rail line runs into Czekoslovakia; Basel has lines into both Germany and France, with one line serving three countires if my memory is correct. And Ariel University does accept and have West Bank Arab students.
I'm not on Facebook or any of that other "social media" nonsense either. But, remember what Lucy said in the Peanuts comic,
"The only person I really trust is Charlie Brown, and I don't even trust him!"
Mark my words folks, and don't ever forget them.
The electromagnetic spectrum in all it's forms is an efficient and useful servant, but it's a gossipy one. Which is why I never put anything out on it I'm not willing for someone to see. Ever.
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