Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
YNet reports:
Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz's ambitious plan to connect extend the railroad tracks from Beit She'an East to the Sheikh Hussein crossing at the Jordanian border was allocated NIS 15 million in the 2019 budget.The main purpose is for freight, not people. The trains should reduce truck traffic that is going today from the port at Haifa to Jordan.
The funds will be invested in planning the extension of the tracks to the border crossing.
Trains are set to carry passengers and cargo between the Israeli Mediterranean coast and Jordan, or more optimistically—if there is a peace agreement between the countries—all the way to Iraq and Saudi Arabia as well.
And beyond.
Buried in this Al-Monitor story about the proposed railway as a possible competitor to the Suez Canal we learn:
In the interview [with Arabic newspaper Elaph], Katz explained that the railway will cut freight expenses from Europe to the Gulf countries and indicated that 25% of Turkey’s exports to the Gulf travel through Haifa’s port and pass through Jordan.That's probably a fair amount of goods that already go to Gulf states through Haifa. I imagine that many products from Europe also reach the Gulf through Haifa.
Part of the honor/shame dynamic is that one is shamed only if what he did is known. Arabs don't mind benefiting from Israel - as long as no one knows.
