Bet Shemesh Updates: Twinning, Training and Splitting

Some interesting Bet Shemesh developments:

• While it was reported that the potential twinning of Bet Shemesh with Montgomery County was cancelled, it seems that the decision is yet really final. Despite various council members explaining why the council decided against, the head of the council says the final decision has not yet been made, and the reports were publicized by some members who were opposed in an effort to influence the decision.
  Not only does it raise the question why various council members said it had been cancelled, but it also raises the question why the mayor of Bet Shemesh blamed local people cooperating with pro-Palestinian groups in an effort to derail it.
  
  According to Jerusalem Post reports, local residents/activists have been writing to representatives of Montgomery County in an effort to encourage them to approve the twinning plan.
  
• Rumor has it that the train ride between Tel Aviv and Bet Shemesh will be getting shorter. Due to work on the tracks by various stations the ride from Bet Shemesh to Tel Aviv should soon be shortened to 32 minutes (I heard this will happen in May). This will also make the ride to and from Jerusalem shorter.
  I have not yet seen such changes mentioned on the Israel Rail Authority website, but those are the rumors. I hope they are true. The train minyan will have to daven a bit faster, if it turns out to be true.
  
• Some Likud activists from old Bet Shemesh are still working on keeping on the table the idea of splitting Bet Shemesh into two cities. While they initially were met with rejection, they have pressured Netanyahu to actually meet with them, after threatening to not support him in future elections and to only support Knesset members in upcoming elections who will support the plan along with recently boycotting the primaries, in which only 300 or so voters voted instead of the 2100 registered members,  Netanyahu finally agreed to meet with them.
  
  At the meeting they handed a plan over to Netanyahu in which they delineate a possible plan to split the city. If there plan gets approved, there would be two cities - Bet Shemesh, consisting of mostly old Bet Shemesh with some adjustments, and a city they call Ayalon which would include the newer areas and would  be haredi. The plan is modeled on Nazareth, which was formed into two cities - Nazareth with the Arab population and Nazareth Ilit with the Jewish population and each takes care of its unique needs.
  
  The activists says that the area under municipal control of Bet Shemesh is larger than that of Tel Aviv, at 56,000 square kilometers, reaching all the way to Kibbutz Netiv HaLamed Hay. In their words, "there is plenty of space to put there hundreds of thousands of haredim. just leave our city alone to live quietly."
  
  While the mayor Moshe Abutbol is still rejecting the idea, calling too difficult to work out as there are many haredim living in old Bet Shemesh, the activists say that it can be worked out and when it will be, the haredim in old Bet Shemesh will leave as they will prefer the new haredi city over the old traditional city, as their interests will be better achieved and cared for in the haredi city. (source: NRG)