A ticket to ride.

The relatively short section of route 71 linking Afula and Beit Shean, is a road I often travel. I’m familiar with every bend and turn and notice even slight changes along its course.

Lately, extensive development work conducted on a stretch of land a short distance south of the road has impeded the smooth flow of traffic along this route.           For several months now a fleet of heavy construction machines – bulldozers, excavators and dump trucks have been levelling a swath of land parallel to the road.. Earth is carted away and track ballast is brought in via the road.  A sign nearby conveys a consoling message to impatient motorists forced to trail behind trucks working on the project. “Construction work on the Jezreel Valley railway is underway."  Observant drivers will no doubt recall that the old Ottoman railroad was constructed along the very same route. The British mandatory government inherited the Turkish railways authority in this country and expanded it further. With the outbreak of the War of Independence   the Jezreel Valley railway  ceased to function. 

Although the sleepers and rails of the old Turkish railway have “disappeared,” many of the station houses along the line are still standing.

As early as 1865 the deputy British consul in Haifa  proposed the construction of a railway from the port of Haifa to Baghdad. In his proposal he described a line that would run through the Jezreel Valley with a possible extension to Damascus. Commercial and national intrigues involving British, French, German and Turkish interests caused many delays between the planning of the railway and the laying of the tracks. Finally forty years later on October 15, 1905 the first train left Haifa for Damascus.

At first the Jezreel Valley railway served mainly for delivering construction materials from the Haifa port for continuing the work on the main Hejaz railway line. The Hejaz railway was built for ideological, religious, and to a lesser extent military needs. Over the years the the Jezreel Valley line served for transferring products from the  Hauran (part of the  present day Golan Heights, Syria and Jordan) to the Mediterranean.                                                 Of the various groups that competed for the construction of the Jezreel Valley railway, one of them the Lebanese Sursuk family owned large tracts of land in the Jezreel Valley and the Houran. After the opening of the Haifa-Damascus railway Joshua Hankin negotiated with the Sursuk family for the sale of its Jezreel Valley lands. However, it wasn’t till 1920 that the purchase was concluded. The first group of Jewish pioneers to settle on the newly acquired land pitched their tents by Gideon’s Spring in October 1921. They called their new home Ein Harod.

Since 1948 there have been several failed attempts to resurrect the Jezreel Valley railway. Finally, a large-scale project to build a new standard gauge railway from Haifa to Beit Shean  along roughly the same route as the historical valley railway began in 2011 and is expected to be completed in 2016.                                                                          Obviously a commuter train service hardly justifies the considerable investment and the running costs involved in the project. The project's rationale can be found in the second stage of the plan. The supplement states that the railway will be extended beyond Beit Shean as far as the Sheikh Hussein Bridge over the Jordan River in the Beit She'an Valley. From there it is due to continue to Irbid in Jordan, where it will link with the Jordanian railway system. Incoming Israel Ports Development & Assets Company chairman Meir Dagan, the former head of the Mossad, is responsible for liaison with the Jordanian government. As far as I know no extension to Damascus is being considered at the present time.

Nevertheless, Syria is very much "on our minds."  Yediot Ahronot’s security correspondent Alex Fishman wrote about the CIA’s efforts to obtain accurate and reliable information about the rebel forces in Syria. Even satellite surveillance and intelligence gleaned from Turkish, Jordanian and Israeli sources don’t provide enough information.                                           Washington Institute research fellow David Pollock returned recently from a visit to Turkey where together with a European delegation he met over 100 members of the Syrian opposition. In the report he published after his return Pollock said, “One of my strongest impressions is that things are not what they seem. It is very difficult on the ground to be sure who it is that you are really talking to and what they represent.”.. “Many times throughout the trip, we experienced people privately telling some of us one thing and others something completely different, and talking about each other in quite derogatory ways behind each other’s backs.” With reference to the Muslim Brotherhood he said, “It is pervasive not only within the Syrian National Council (SNC), but among many opposition groups – mostly outside Syria.” From his conversations Pollock concluded, “There is a striking cynicism and anger among fighters within Syria toward the outside world for not providing enough practical support.”…”Sadly, most of these Syrians hold Israel responsible for preventing greater U.S. support. Aside from one exception, this view was nearly unanimous. In spite of, or perhaps because of, this very weird perception about Israel’s power, whenever we asked, ‘If Israel offered weapons or help, would you take it?’ the answer was almost always, ‘definitely!’ “
Alex Fishman believes the assassination of top Syrian defence officials was not necessarily carried out by the rebels. "This story has too many hallmarks of a blow delivered by an orderly spy agency capable of penetrating the security around Syria's top brass. Turkish intelligence, for example, has the abilities and also the interest – in conjunction with the Americans – to avenge the downing of the Turkish jet by the Syrians a few weeks ago."

In a lead article on the Syrian opposition forces The Economist said, "Rather than try to entrench themselves in urban areas, they now tend to carry out hit-

and-run raids to exhaust and demoralise government soldiers. Rebel attacks are better co-coordinated, thanks to better communications equipment.

The Free Syrian Army (FSA), as the armed opposition is known, is getting more advice from Western and Gulf friends than it lets on. The FSA’s improved skills are thanks to the rising number of defections from Assad’s forces. Western diplomats are taking the Syrian National Council  less seriously, since it lacks credibility in Syria, and are shifting their focus to the FSA and internal groups.”

In another report David Pollock mentions Syria’s Kurdish minority, ”A sudden political shift among Syria's three million Kurds, who now control much of the country's border with Turkey, provides an opportunity for the United States to better coordinate its policy with regional allies and to encourage the Syrian opposition to respect minority rights.

While world attention focuses on bombings and clashes in Damascus and Aleppo, Syria's Kurds buried their internal differences in mid-July, with Iraqi Kurdish help and Turkey's blessing, and then promptly kicked Syrian regime forces out of their territory. This is a major blow to the regime, potentially clearing the northern approaches to Aleppo for opposition forces. But Kurdish relations with the rest of the Syrian opposition remain a deeply divisive issue.”

The Syrian opposition and the Kurdish parties, however, remain sharply at odds over Kurdish demands for recognition as a distinct people inside Syria, with their own cultural and linguistic rights under some form of "political decentralization." According to senior Syrian opposition figures, tribal sheikhs, and Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders in Antakya and Istanbul, if the Kurds get autonomy, then what about Syria's multitude of other minorities? Moreover, these figures say, Turkey will strive to block any such Arab-Kurdish agreement in Syria.

Earlier this week Andrew J. Tabler, Senior Fellow at The Washington Institute

appeared before the U.S. Senate, Committee on Foreign Relations. Summing up the impasse in the Security Council and the Administration's reluctance to get involved in any "boots on the ground" presence in Syria, he said,  “Meanwhile, Washington has given its Middle East allies Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar a nod to support the opposition with lethal as well as nonlethal assistance."… "The picture is still far from clear, but the Syrian opposition can perhaps be best described as headless but not leaderless with a generally flat structure. Had we based our strategy last winter on what was happening on the ground in Syria, we would have much better visibility in terms of both military operations and these groups’ political aspirations."

Now the situation has changed, "Other forces, some inimical to U.S. interests, are stepping in to fill the void. Anecdotal and media reports indicate that individuals and governments in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, as well as others, are sending much-needed lethal support to the opposition. In terms of state policy, all openly support the U.S. short-term interest of bringing down the Assad regime. But it is far from clear if they support U.S. long-term interests of a democratic and secular Syria that respects minority rights and shuns terrorism, let alone supports Middle East peace. In addition, forces” such as al-Qaeda affiliates, including Jabhat al-Nusra, have established a presence in Syria. There are increased reports over the last few months of increased foreign fighters entering Syria."

Our border with Lebanon, a quiet border since the Second Lebanon War and the border with Syria on the Golan Heights, quiet since the Yom Kippur War, are being watched closely. Neither Hezbollah nor Syria are expected to attack Israel, however the large numbers of Syrian refugees fleeing to Turkey and Jordan might try to cross infiltrate into Israel.  Along the border on the Golan Heights bulldozers have been excavating deep moat-like anti-personnel     trenches. In addition rolls of concertina barbed wire will help deter would be infiltrators.

At the moment that train ride to Damascus seems more remote than ever. Maybe I’ll settle for a ride to Beit Shean or Haifa

Have a good weekend

Beni                2^nd of  August,  2012.