Tomorrow afternoon, just before Shabbat begins, Minister Dudi Amsalem will celebrate another week of division and division in Israel. House singer Robbie will be amazed, the (non-fake) alcohol will spill like water and maybe the transport minister will also come to the celebration, just like last week. After all, she, too, has done her part to the mutual hatred in Israeli society this week. If public transportation can also be made a contentious issue, then why not? Miri Regev also wants to stick a finger in the eye to the northerners after the blow they received to their face.
Tour of the light rail complex in Tel Aviv // Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
Regev's decision, according to which the children of Tel Aviv and the center would fund the children of Bnei Brak, Elad, Modi'in Ilit and the other cities that Uri Maklev, the deputy minister responsible for ultra-Orthodox development and transportation, cares about, might have sounded socialist for a moment. Still, even Tamar Guzansky would still sign that the poor would be able to take public transportation at the expense of the rich.
But in practice, it's an eyesore. Regev makes a clear distinction here between those who travel by bus and pay cheaply, those who travel on Israel Railways and will pay the most, and those who will travel and travel on the light rail and pay in between. The bottom line is that the Transportation Minister proves once again that she did not come to this position to encourage public transportation, but so that we would continue to use private cars. Hugo Chávez de la Chamate.
The Red Line Allenby Station, Photo: Moshe Shai
In 400, 2024,8 Israelis are supposed to travel on the light rail daily in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. If they buy a "monthly pass" they will receive a discount, if they want to use a one-time trip or if they are just people who came from outside, they will pay 5 NIS per trip instead of 5.<> NIS - the current price for a travel ticket. Bezalel Smotrich, who only G-d knows how he became the responsible adult, pointed to the budgetary issue and suggested Regev give up the "transportation justice" project.
But Regev promised she would find funding. And what is that funding? The "cash cow" of Israeli society – the already eroded middle class. In a precedent-setting manner, and despite the gloomy public atmosphere and the feeling that the country is being torn in two, Regev and Maklev unilaterally decided to lower prices for one specific population: the ultra-Orthodox.
But not all the blame, of course, lies with Regev. The previous minister, Merav Michaeli, also failed to find a formula that would not harm the periphery and on the other hand would not increase the cost of travel by public transportation. But while Michaeli disappeared from the Israeli political map and disappeared an entire party with her, Miri Regev still sees herself one day in an even higher position in the Likud than the one she is in today. And hitting one sector in favor of another is the kind of stuff that accompanies your political career wherever you go.
Deputy Minister Uri Maklev, Photo: Dudi Vaknin
Merav Michaeli, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
If rising prices promised better service and a better product, the new frog could still be swallowed. But all the professionals (not the members of the Likud center she appointed to positions in her office) point out that Israel lacks drivers for public transportation and the service provided does not sufficiently satisfy the citizen.
The budget could have been directed to improving the service that might have attracted new audiences to public transportation in Israel, but if Regev had acted for the common good, how would it have been possible to stand on stage and talk about "them" and "us" and add more fuel to the fire of polarization and radicalization?
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