Tel Aviv to be first to get new hi tech transport system
This is another post that got pushed aside by Operation Pillar of Defense. Tel Aviv may be the first city in the world to get a new hi tech transportation system.
The skyTran
uses two-person modules that drive along a guide rail suspended from
existing power lines. Magnets in the vehicle create a magnetic field
around the metal coil inside the rail, causing the vehicle to lift up
and glide 60 miles per hour on a cushion of air. The system uses very
little energy and potentially could be powered entirely by solar panels.
“Our objective is to build a pilot project here so that we can make
Israel the center of the skyTran world,” CEO Jerry Sanders tells
ISRAEL21c.
The first route, on which construction could begin next spring, would
run from the high-tech center in Atidim through the Tel Aviv University
train station to the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Port. Another installation might be
placed on Netanya’s congested east side and a third would take people
into and around Ariel Sharon Park, a huge public “green belt” in central
Israel.
Personal rapid transit (PRT) alternatives are in hot demand worldwide
– especially in big countries such as China and India — as a means to
relieve traffic jams and energy consumption. Underground solutions are
expensive and street-level solutions just add more congestion.
“We are the most sophisticated PRT on the market … and also the least expensive, greenest and most efficient,” asserts Sanders.
On Monday, I reported that Deutche Bahn, the German national railway, was withdrawing from its supportive role in a project to construct a high speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. I also reported that the withdrawal was brought about through the efforts of an organization called Who Profits, which I described as
an on-going grassroots investigation effort by activists in The Coalition of Women for Peace, a leading Israeli feminist peace organization, dedicated to exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation so as to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies and eventually lead to an end to the occupation.
I'm sure you folks will all be shocked to hear who funds the Coalition of Women for Peace.
Surely they are funded by Iran or Saudi Arabia? But here’s what NGO Monitor tells us:
In 2006-2009, the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $294,129 to CWP (2006, 2007, 2008, 2009).
“Major donors” since 2000 include the European Union, Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung (587,189 NIS from the German government), Heinrich Böll Stiftung (from the German government), the Moriah Fund, Aaron Back and the Ford Israel Fund, and SIVMO. (This funding does not include support for individual NGOs in the coalition.)
So in addition to the hostile Europeans, liberal American Jews have unknowingly been supporting this viciously anti-Israel organization!
A prominent member of the NIF, chair of its “Pluralism Grants Committee,” is the Union for Reform Judaism’s nominee for its new President, Rabbi Richard Jacobs, who describes himself as “proudly and strongly pro-Israel.”
German National Railways withdraws from Jerusalem-Tel Aviv rail project
Bowing to a campaign led by a self-hating Jewish Israeli (of course!) the German National rail company Deutsche Bahn has withdrawn from its supportive role in the construction of a high speed rail line between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The rail line is designed to cut travel time between the two cities to 28 minutes by 2017.
According to a report in Der Spiegel, Germany’s Federal Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer told Deutsche Bahn CEO that the project was politically “problematic” and violated the “terms of international law.”
The German government indicated back in December that it was nervous about the project after German MP’s began questioning it. In a letter dated March 14, 2011 and obtained by Change.org, Germany’s Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Transport, Building and Urban Affairs Enak Ferlemann wrote to MP Inge Höger:
“The German government has pointed out that for German foreign policy, the Israeli state railroad project traversing occupied territory, is problematic and potentially a violation of international law... In the meantime the management of DB International has also confirmed in writing that, in regards to this politically very sensitive project, DB International would be engaged in no further activities.”
...
An international campaign calling on Deutsche Bahn to withdraw from the project was launched after “Who Profits” released a report detailing the involvement of European and American companies in the construction of the rail line. Who Profits is an on-going grassroots investigation effort by activists in The Coalition of Women for Peace, a leading Israeli feminist peace organization, dedicated to exposing companies and corporations involved in the occupation so as to promote a change in public opinion and corporate policies and eventually lead to an end to the occupation.
Meirav Amir, Coordinator of Who Profits, celebrated the German government’s decision.
“I want to congratulate the German government for making such a clear and bold statement about the illegality of this train route under international law,” she said. “It’s encouraging to see a government abide by their own treaties and adhere to international law, and we call on other European governments to follow suit in making sure that companies in their countries abide by international law.”
Forbes quotes Israel Railways spokesman Liran Gordon as saying that Deutsche Bahn played a 'minor role' in the project, and that its withdrawal won't affect the 2017 launch date.
Israel Radio reports that the areas in question were no-man's land before 1967, and not Jordanian territory. The picture of the rail connection construction at the top was taken from a portion of the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway which is similarly situated. I wonder how all these 'activists' get from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.
Oy vey! High-speed rail line cuts through disputed territories
For years now, we Jerusalemites have been promised a high speed rail connection to Tel Aviv. Many of us are familiar with the pitch: It will start in Ramot on the northern end of the city and will reach Tel Aviv in 28 minutes. Given that the current train starts near the Malcha mall at the southern end of the city, requires a change in Beit Shemesh and takes about 90 minutes to get to Tel Aviv, this would be a massive improvement for rail commuters.
They've even started building the rail line. You can see a picture of it above. But over at al-AP, they're very upset about the rail line. You see, they think they've discovered that the rail line runs through the disputed territories.
Left-wing critics stated that the planned rail route violates international law because the construction has seized Palestinian land and won't serve Palestinian residents of the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority will "resort to all legal and possible diplomatic methods to try to end this violation of Palestinian rights," spokesman Ghassan Khatib said. He called on foreign companies to withdraw from the project.
Companies from Italy and Russia, the latter state-owned, are helping build the line, and a subsidiary of Germany's state railway provided a technical opinion for one segment, albeit inside Israel, according to Israel Railways.
Israeli government officials say they have taken steps to ensure that the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem line would one day benefit Palestinians. Transport Ministry spokesman Avner Ovadiah said planning has begun on an extension that would connect Gaza with the city of Ramallah, the West Bank's center of commerce and government. .
But researcher Dalit Baum said that idea is "a cynical ploy that is only suggested in order to justify this train route as legal." Baum wrote a report on the project published this week by an Israeli watchdog group, the Coalition of Women for Peace.
Most of the six-kilometer (nearly four-mile) stretch of the railway inside the West Bank runs through tunnels.
However, Israel is taking Palestinian lands, some of them privately owned, for tunnel portals and access roads, Baum said. Most of the land belongs to the Palestinian villages of Beit Iksa and neighboring Beit Surik, whose residents have already been separated from some of their lands by the Israel's security barrier.
The train line will run on the Israeli side of the barrier.
Omar Hamdan, the Beit Iksa mayor, said the villagers only found out about the plans to lay the tracks through their lands last year when they were alerted by Israeli peace activists. By then, it was too late to object, he said.
Israel's Civil Administration, a branch of the Israeli military responsible for planning permits in the West Bank, said while the West Bank segments for the rail line have been approved in principle, land expropriation orders for Beit Iksa have not yet been issued. Officials said villagers would still have a chance to object once that happens. Local officials estimated at least dozens of acres of Palestinian land would be affected.
Work has already started in the West Bank in parts near Beit Surik and Beit Iksa. The first stretch of the 34-mile (56-kilometer) rail line has been completed, starting at Ben Gurion Airport and running inside Israel.
Planning for the high-speed line began in the mid-1990s, but was repeatedly delayed by objections from environmental groups and local residents.
Originally, the train line was to run within Israeli territory on the edge of Mevasseret Zion, a Jerusalem suburb abutting the West Bank. But after residents objected, the line was moved 300 meters (yards) to the north, into the West Bank, cutting through the lands of two Palestinian villages.
"The Israeli planners decided to move the route into the military occupation's jurisdiction to avoid having to negotiate a compromise with Israeli citizens," Baum wrote in her report.
A second segment was planned from the start to take a shortcut through a part of the West Bank that juts into Israel near the Latrun area.
Let me let you in on a few secrets. Ramot, where the train is due to have its Jerusalem terminus... is beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Mevasseret Tziyon is partly built (maybe even mostly)... beyond the 1949 armistice lines.
Beit Ikhsa (a name beloved to Israeli children for the last 43 years - Ikhsa means Yuck in Hebrew) is that village that you see overlooking the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway between Ramot and Mevasseret on your right as you're leaving Jerusalem. It's kind of hard to believe that any Israeli government could give it away.
And as to the train route around Latrun (where the picture was taken - I know that spot well)... it's right near Highway 1, the main Jerusalem - Tel Aviv highway which - guess what - runs through disputed territories for about eight kilometers near Latrun.
Mind you, other than Ramot, which is included in Jerusalem, I have never heard any of these issues raised in 'peace talks.' But reality is that there is no way Israel is going to undertake to divert highway 1 around that eight kilometer stretch (it would take years, would cost a fortune, and would wreak havoc with out traffic), and if those eight kilometers of a highway can be tolerated, six kilometers of a rail line could be tolerated as well.
The borders have been as they are for 43 years, and there is no way we can go back to 1967. If the 'Palestinians' cannot acknowledge that reality, there will never be a peace agreement.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
