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Tel Aviv’s long-awaited light rail system is finally opening. But not on Shabbat.
TEL AVIV (JTA) — The sounds of protest echoed and the ticket scanner malfunctioned as Israel’s transportation minister, Miri Regev, led a dry run for journalists of Tel Aviv’s long-awaited light rail on Wednesday.
The landmark project, which cost nearly $5 billion, promises to reshape the experience of commuting to Tel Aviv, or moving within it, for countless Israelis. The Red Line, whose route runs through Bat Yam, south of Tel Aviv, through Tel Aviv to Petah Tikva, will officially open to the public on Friday — eight years after construction began and two years after it was first set to open.
The country has changed in that time. Now, government ministers cannot make public appearances without drawing protests from Israelis who are upset about the eight-month-old coalition’s efforts to limit the power of the judiciary. Indeed, protesters gathered at Ehrlich Station on Jaffa’s main artery, Jerusalem Boulevard, ahead of Regev’s arrival, chanting, “The minister poses for photo ops while the country is collapsing.” Others followed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to his appearance at the official opening ceremony in Petah Tikva on Thursday.
Anti-overhaul activists protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the opening ceremony of the light rail, in Petah Tikva, Aug. 17, 2023. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)
For many residents, one of the key issues clouding the light rail’s inauguration is that it will not run on Shabbat. Regev’s predecessor, Merav Michaeli, had promised that the line would run on Friday evenings and all day Saturday — a rarity in a country where public transportation does not operate on Shabbat. (An exception is in Haifa, which has a large Arab population.)
Michaeli’s promise had prompted outrage in the haredi Orthodox suburb of Bnei Brak, which has several stops on its route. Earlier this month, Regev announced that she was reversing Michaeli’s decision.
“We will uphold the status quo, according to which the train will not operate on Shabbat. For non-religious people, Shabbat is also a day of rest. And this is a Jewish state,” Regev told journalists on Wednesday.
As it stands, the line will operate for only 45 minutes on Saturday evenings, a shorter period than Jerusalem operates its light-rail system.
Miri Regev, Israel’s transportation minister, hosts a test drive of the new Metropolitan Light Rail in Jaffa-Tel Aviv, Aug. 16, 2023. (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai skipped the opening ceremony over the Shabbat decision. Now, some critics of the government decision say they plan to boycott the train line altogether until it operates on Shabbat.
Ziv Forshtat, one of the people protesting Michaeli during the dry run, said he thought the limited service had to do with the massive anti-government demonstrations that take place after Shabbat ends each week at Kaplan Square, which is adjacent to one of the light-rail stations.
“They don’t want to make it easier for people to come to Kaplan for the protests,” he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Forshtat said he thought it was important that Israelis who have protested the right-wing government’s judiciary legislation should add the issue of transportation on Shabbat to their agenda.
“It’s a situation that has been tolerated until now,” Forshtat said. “But now that we’re seeing the belt tightened in other areas with this government, it’s time to put our foot down on this issue also.”
The other six days of the week, the new train line will ease for many Israelis what can be a complicated, congested journey to and through Tel Aviv. Traveling into the center of the city from either of the terminuses of the train line can take up to an hour by bus; driving by car, which not all Israelis can do, comes with a hefty price tag for parking — if a spot can even be found. Now, it will take just minutes to traverse the same distance. Areas served by the new train line are expected to become more desirable for people seeking to beat the city’s high rents.
“Whatever the problems, whatever the ‘could-have-been’s, this light rail line is a tremendous improvement over the status quo. On my route, this train line — warts and all — saves one to two hours a day,” said Owen Alterman, who works as a senior correspondent at the i24NEWS television channel. Because of poor eyesight, Alterman cannot drive and uses public transportation to get to and from the channel’s studios.
Work is underway on two additional lines that will triple the area served by light rail; those lines are for now scheduled to be completed in 2026 and 2028. The entire project will ultimately include 139 stations in 14 cities.
View of the new Metropolitan Light Rail station in Tel Aviv, Aug. 16, 2023 (Avshalom Sassoni/Flash90)
The 34 stations on the Red Line are gleaming in advance of the first day of operations on Friday. Unlike in Jerusalem, where a new light rail system operated fare-free for four months after the first line opened in 2011, the Tel Aviv system will start collecting fares on Saturday night. Trips within Tel Aviv will cost 5 shekels, or about $1.30, and longer trips will cost just over $3.
Some local residents had hoped that Tel Aviv would follow Jerusalem’s example and offer free rides as compensation for construction upheaval.
“After shutting down the main traffic arteries in Jaffa for four years, putting countless stores out of business and making traffic impossible in the area, the least they could offer is more than one free day,” Bracha Arnold, a Jaffa resident, told JTA.
Regev did not offer details about the transportation ministry’s decision making. “We decided that it would be one day,” she said. “From Saturday we will start validating tickets.”
How smoothly that happens remains to be seen. After Regev swiped a borrowed travel card, known as a Rav Kav, to pay a fare, the ticket barriers malfunctioned and remained closed.
“Let’s hope this gets fixed by Saturday night,” she said.
Other potential challenges loom. The train has the capacity to hold 440 passengers, but Tevel, the company that operates the line, anticipates that demand will be higher. By September, when operations normalize, the company projects demand to stand at 600 to 700 passengers per train.
The gap worries both Amiram Ohion, CEO of Tevel, the company that operates the Red Line, and Haim Glick, CEO of the government-owned mass transit agency.
“We have a passenger forecast for the route, but it is based on buses, which is a whole different world of public transportation,” Ohion said, adding that vehicle owners who traditionally shun buses may in fact choose to ride the light rail.
According to Ohio, the project was fraught with complexities, not least because it is one of only a handful of light rail systems in the world that runs both above and below ground. Ten of the 34 stations on the Red Line are subterranean, and the train runs more quickly between them.
Glick said more than 300 attendants would be deployed to assist in navigating commuters and prevent crushes.
“We also hope that the public will start acting like Europeans,” he said, noting that European capitals like London and Paris that have very busy train systems are “organized” nonetheless.
“We want people on the platform to wait for passengers to get off the train first before they try to get on.”
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The New Philosemitism: An age-old tradition has taken new shape—but who is this helping?
This piece originally appeared in the Fall 2024 edition of the quarterly magazine published by The Canadian Jewish News. Jews have always had our share of enemies, but some moments […]
The post The New Philosemitism: An age-old tradition has taken new shape—but who is this helping? appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Biden: Israel Should Mull Alternatives to Striking Iran Oil Fields
US President Joe Biden speaks during a campaign rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, June 28, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Elizabeth Frantz
JNS.org – US President Joe Biden suggested on Friday that Israel should consider alternative targets rather than attacking Iranian oil fields in response to the Islamic Republic’s massive ballistic missile attack on the Jewish state earlier this week.
“The Israelis have not concluded what they’re going to do in terms of a strike, that’s under discussion. If I were in their shoes, I’d be thinking about other alternatives than striking oil fields,” Biden said during a rare appearance at a White House press briefing.
“No administration has helped Israel more than I have—none, none, none. I think Bibi should remember that,” added the president, using Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s nickname.
A day earlier, Biden said that the possibility of hitting Iran’s oil assets and infrastructure was “in discussion,” while noting that Jerusalem maintains freedom of action.
“First of all, we don’t ‘allow’ Israel. We advise Israel,” he said.
On Tuesday, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel, leading the entire civilian population of the Jewish state to be ordered into bomb shelters. One Palestinian was killed and two Israelis were lightly injured by the attack.
In April, Iran conducted its first-ever direct attack on Israeli territory, launching some 300 missiles and drones, the vast majority of which were shot down in a multinational effort. One girl was wounded.
On Wednesday, Biden told reporters that he opposes an Israeli retaliatory strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, adding that he was crafting a response with the G7 group of leading democracies.
“The answer is ‘no,’” the president said when asked about targeting the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites. “We’ll be discussing with the Israelis what they’re going to do, but all seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they should respond proportionately.”
Biden declined to say what advice he was giving to the Jewish state and indicated that he had not spoken with Netanyahu since the Iranian attack.
“We’ve been talking to Bibi’s people the whole time. It’s not necessary to talk to Bibi,” he said.
“I’ll probably be talking to him relatively soon,” he added.
Biden spoke with the G7 leaders on Wednesday “to discuss Iran’s unacceptable attack against Israel and to coordinate on a response to this attack, including new sanctions,” per a White House readout.
Biden and the G7 “unequivocally condemned Iran’s attack against Israel,” the White House added. “President Biden expressed the United States’ full solidarity and support to Israel and its people and reaffirmed the United States’ ironclad commitment to Israel’s security.”
Meanwhile, Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump said on Thursday that Iran’s nuclear infrastructure was fair game.
“They asked [Biden], what do you think about Iran, would you hit Iran? And he goes, ‘As long as they don’t hit the nuclear stuff.’ That’s the thing you want to hit, right?” Trump said during a town hall-style event in Fayetteville, N.C.
“I think he’s got that one wrong,” Trump said of Biden. “Isn’t that what you’re supposed to hit? I mean, it’s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons. …
“The answer should have been: Hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,” Trump added.
The post Biden: Israel Should Mull Alternatives to Striking Iran Oil Fields first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Nasrallah’s Possible Successor Out of Contact Since Friday, Lebanese Source Says
Smoke billows over Beirut’s southern suburbs after overnight strikes, amid ongoing hostilities between Hezbollah and Israeli forces, as seen from Sin El Fil, Lebanon October 5, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Joseph Campbell
The potential successor to slain Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has been out of contact since Friday, a Lebanese security source said on Saturday, after an Israeli airstrike that is reported to have targeted him.
In its campaign against the Iran-backed Lebanese group, Israel carried out a large strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs late on Thursday that Axios cited three Israeli officials as saying targeted Hashem Safieddine in an underground bunker.
The Lebanese security source and two other Lebanese security sources said that ongoing Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburb – known as Dahiyeh – since Friday have kept rescue workers from scouring the site of the attack.
Hezbollah has made no comment so far on Safieddine since the attack.
Israeli Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani said on Friday the military was still assessing the Thursday night airstrikes, which he said targeted Hezbollah’s intelligence headquarters.
The loss of Nasrallah’s rumored successor would be yet another blow to Hezbollah and its patron Iran. Israeli strikes across the region in the past year, sharply accelerated in the past few weeks, have decimated Hezbollah’s leadership.
Israel expanded its conflict in Lebanon on Saturday with its first strike in the northern city of Tripoli, a Lebanese security official said, after more bombs hit Beirut suburbs and Israeli troops launched raids in the south.
Israel has begun an intense bombing campaign in Lebanon and sent troops across the border in recent weeks after nearly a year of exchanging fire with Hezbollah. Fighting had previously been mostly limited to the Israel-Lebanon border area, taking place in parallel to Israel’s year-old war in Gaza against Palestinian group Hamas.
Israel says it aims to allow the safe return of tens of thousands of citizens to their homes in northern Israel, bombarded by Hezbollah since Oct.8 last year.
The Israeli attacks have eliminated much of Hezbollah’s senior military leadership, including Secretary General Nasrallah in an air attack on Sept. 27.
The Israeli assault has also killed hundreds of ordinary Lebanese, including rescue workers, Lebanese officials say, and forced 1.2 million people – almost a quarter of the population – to flee their homes.
The Lebanese security official told Reuters that Saturday’s strike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Tripoli killed a member of Hamas, his wife and two children. Media affiliated with the Palestinian group also said the strike killed a leader of its armed wing.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment on the strike on Tripoli, a Sunni Muslim-majority port city that its warplanes also targeted during a 2006 war with Hezbollah.
Israel has meanwhile staged nightly bombardment of Dahiyeh, once a bustling and densely populated area of Beirut and a stronghold for Hezbollah.
On Saturday, smoke billowed over Dahiyeh, large parts of which have been reduced to rubble sending residents fleeing to other parts of Beirut or of Lebanon.
In northern Israel, air raid sirens sent people running for their shelters amid rocket fire from Lebanon.
ISRAEL WEIGHS OPTIONS FOR IRAN
The violence comes as the anniversary approaches of Hamas’ attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people and in which about 250 were taken as hostages.
Iran, which backs both Hezbollah and Hamas, and which has lost key commanders of its elite Revolutionary Guards Corps to Israeli air strikes in Syria this year, launched a salvo of ballistic missiles at Israel on Tuesday. The strikes did little damage.
Israel has been weighing options in its response to Iran’s attack.
Oil prices have risen on the possibility of an attack on Iran’s oil facilities as Israel pursues its goals of pushing back Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and eliminating their Hamas allies in Gaza.
US President Joe Biden on Friday urged Israel to consider alternatives to striking Iranian oil fields, adding that he thinks Israel has not yet concluded how to respond to Iran.
Israeli news website Ynet reported that the top US general for the Middle East, Army General Michael Kurilla, is headed for Israel in the coming day. Israeli and US officials were not immediately reachable for comment.
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