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Sep 6, 2012

Rumors To The Stopping Of Bet Shemesh Construction

The newest edition of the Bet Shemesh haredi newspaper Chadash, distributed today, is reporting on a rumor (and some wonder why others call it a rag...). They state explicitly that it is a rumor.

The story goes like this. the Finance Ministry has frozen the tender for upgrading Highway 38. That seems to be a fact.

Why and for how long seems to be unclear.

Someone, quoted in the article, spoke to the ministry and was given the reason that due to upcoming budget cuts the tender is for now on hold. When the final budgets will be decided, the Transportation Ministry will decide what to do with the money they are budgeted, and the Transportation Ministry will decide whether to reissue the tender and start the project of upgrading Highway 38, or if they wish to use their budgets for other projects.

Now let's get to the rumor, which makes up most of the feature article.

The rumor is that the real reason for the delay in the tender for the project is to cause a delay in upgrading the road, perhaps even a "permanent" delay. This will throw a monkey wrench into the plans for further construction in the southern hills of Bet Shemesh - including RBS C2, RBS D, RBS E and RBS F (gimmel2, daled, hei and vav). Why will it cause a delay? Because a clause in the permit for development and construction of those neighborhoods (from Gimmel 2 and on) says that tofes 4 (occupation permits) cannot be given until the highway 38 will have been upgraded to a 4 lane highway. The rumor says that Likud activists have decided to "punish" the non-Likud mayors of Bet Shemesh and Mateh Yehudah by pressuring the Finance Ministry to   stop the highway upgrade, thus making life uncomfortable and stopping construction of new neighborhoods, along with possibly halting the "haredification" of Bet Shemesh. Another aspect of the rumor is that somehow this will help these Likud activists retake these mayorships (and head of regional council) that for a long time were in Likud hands.

That's the rumor. They found nothing confirmed, no official statement, and no actual indication to this story - just a rumor.

They went to get the response of Mayor Moshe Abutbol  to these rumored plans, and he went ballistic. Abutbol has heard the rumors and believes the information to be credible. Abutbol threatened, promised really, that no matter what happens, even if the upgrade of  highway 38 gets canceled or indefinitely delayed, he will make sure that all those neighborhoods will be built anyway and they will be populated. he then goes on to invoke the dangerous status of the road, and accuses them of playing politics with life and death, as so many people have already been victims of the lousy road conditions of the highway and he wont allow it to continue. he is putting together a professional team forming a committee to deal with the issue and lobby for the renovation of the highway, and also plans to use his good relationship with the Transportation Minister to make sure the plans move ahead.

1. If true, this is horrible. Regardless of construction in the southern neighborhoods, Highway 38 must be renovated. it is dangerous and it cannot bear the amount of traffic already using the highway on a daily basis. The highway upgrade should not be held hostage, not to punish the local mayors and not to cause construction delays.

2. I dont understand his threat. If the project will be stopped, and if the government wont issue occupation or even construction permits due to the clause in the initial approval, how exactly is Moshe Abutbol going to personally make sure the construction gets done and the houses get populated? is he going to personally give the financial guarantees to the kablanim and the mortgages to the buyers? they wont be able to get any money from the bank if there are no government permits.

3. The upgrade of Highway 38 is crucial to the area. However, moving to Bet Shemesh is not a matter of life and death, if it is so dangerous, and it is, then Moshe Abutbol should himself freeze construction until the project is moved along. How can he bring more people to the area knowing how dangerous the road is? isnt he playing politics with life and death by doing so? the threat of stopping construction should be a strong threat to the government. they want, and need, the money construction brings, along with lessening the housing crisis. His threat and promise seem totally backwards to me.



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9 comments:

  1. YOU WROTE:
    How can he bring more people to the area knowing how dangerous the road is? isnt he playing politics with life and death by doing so?
    ANSWER -- it wouldn't be the first time that haredi politicians placed haredi interests over pikuach nefesh of the tzibbur as a whole (including haredim). Aryeh Deri and Sha$ supported Rabin for 3 years of Oslo even when any 6 yr old could tell you that arming Arafat leads to dead Jews - they got $$$ for Kollels and Mikvahs. United "Tora" Judiasm supported Gush Katif expulsion in order "to help kids learn tora" even if any 6 year old in 2004 could have told you that it would lead to missles raining down on Southern Israel. and the HAREDIM THEMSELVES suffered (in Sderot, Ashkelon, Ashdod, etc) from this lax attitude towards Pikuach Nefesh.
    MORAL OF THE STORY - when haredim suport the tzibur as a whole, the entire tzibur including the haredim wins; when haredim suport the narrow interests, the entire tzibur including the haredim loses.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rafi, granted this is only a rumor, but given what we all know of Israeli politics, why would this be such a shock?

      In terms of Abutbul, all he has to do is change that clause that says there needs to be a four lane highway. Again, given our knowledge of Israeli politics not such a big deal.

      Finally in terms of the road being pikuach nefesh, I"m not posek, but... even though it is a dangerous road and has been long before you and I moved here, it is long stretch to say that it is so dangerous that one may not move here because of it. And therefore there seems to be no lifnei iver or whatever on the part of the honorable mayor to want to populate his city.


      Delete
    2. 1. its not, but that a newspaper reports (with it being the feature story) on a rumor is strange

      2. it is not up to him to change that clause. it is set by the government body (lands authority, ministry of housing, various committees involved, etc. he does not decide these things.

      3. I didnt say issur or lifnei eever. I did say that if he is worried about life and death, why bring more people that will be in danger on the same road?

      Delete
  2. Hadash is so ridiculous. The other week they had a story about the failed tender on Hayarkon. They were literally licking their chops over it, reporting that - glory be! - a couple of offices over-valued the land so that 3 out of 5 parcels failed to be purchased, and that - with Heaven's help! - the land will be re-zoned for double the units half the size, so that kablanim can afford to build there. And the article drew the "obvious" conclusion that more dense, smaller units means - MORE CHAREDI HOUSING!! Give me a break so narrow-minded they don't even care about the infrastructure for their own.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think the hareidi view of municipal infrastructure is a few vacant lots for the kids to run around in and only having the streets flood with sewage once or twice in the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good post, I like that you present a few possible ideas.

    38 is okay, the amount of cars on it is not. I would not even think of moving to that area and continue working in Sharon/Gush Dan because of that.

    A building freeze in RBS and parallel massive push to build in Harish means that RBS is off the map now. I think the whole conflict of the past year has screwed both sides - the national religious who do not want more Haredim, and the Haredim who did not handle the 'midot extremists' (people without midot who are tolerated).
    Josh

    ReplyDelete
  5. An additional ridiculous element in this is Abutbol's freaking out that elements in the national government would play politics to prevent the remaining neighborhoods of RBS from becoming Hareidi. Somehow, he thinks that such games are completely unacceptable.
    Wasn't he the one who played politics to make RBS Gimel Hareidi in the first place? Abutbol changed the original plans for a mixed neighborhood. But for others to push back is somehow unfair...

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's more likely that all projects greater than NIS XX,000,000 are on hold until the budget issues are worked out. This happens quite often (and they usually exempt IDF projects, of course).

    ReplyDelete
  7. What nonesense. How low will people step to make themselves look like the victims?
    Many, many, many projects have been put on hold by the Finance ministry due to budget deficits and uncertainty about the 2013 budget. Almost every project that hadn't been actually started was put on hold.
    The Mayor can ask himself though why he didn't do more to get 38 underway over the last few years. When mayors in other cities really want something they go all out to get it and ususally manage.

    ReplyDelete

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