Gaza-area mayors: PM promised reinforced homes, did not deliver
Four Gaza area regional council head write angry letter to Olmert after PM declines offer by businessman Gaydamak to finance reinforcement.
By Mijal Grinberg Tags: Arcadi Gaydamak Gaza Israel budgetThere is no money for reinforcing houses in communities near the Gaza Strip in the proposed 2008 state budget, Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal and the heads of four Gaza-area regional councils charged in an angry letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last week.
Olmert had met with them in January and promised to reinforce Gaza-area homes in the coming year. A few months later, businessman Arcadi Gaydamak offered to finance the reinforcement of Sderot himself; two days after that, the Prime Minister's Office declared that a government project to do so had just been launched.
The project began with a Construction and Housing Ministry survey of the needs and the expected costs. According to sources involved in the survey, its conclusion was that the reinforcement would cost over NIS 1 billion ¬ just as the Israel Defense Forces' Home Front Command had previously estimated.
A few months ago, Construction and Housing Ministry officials told Haaretz that a tender for the reinforcements would be issued in the coming weeks. However, this did not occur.
In response to the mayors' letter, the Prime Minister's Office said that the Construction and Housing Ministry was currently planning the reinforcement project, including priorities for what should be reinforced first, and when finished, the plan would be brought before the cabinet for approval.
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olmert: a clown, a fool, a joke, an effing national disgrace. a hollow man. the worst PM is the history of the State. it was as if an untalented, obnoxious, and not very bright actor were hired to stand in for a leader. that might work for an hour or two. Israel has been stuck with this disgrace for over a year. anyone who has allowed olmert to extend his tenure should forever be discredited in the eyes of the People of Israel.
GOVERNMENTS FIRST PRIORITY IS TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE AND MUST okay creation of body to run RE-ENFORCING FRONTIER HOMES AND SCHOOLS management. BEFORE KINERET MANAGMENT BODY!
Send 10 rockets into Gaza for every rocket they send to Sderot,then you will not need to spend one shekel on fortifying houses. Its not rocket science.