Golani Interchange—By the Roads National Company Upwards to Rosh Pina, rightwards to Tiberias, downwards to Afula, leftwards to Haifa

The Flavor of Conscripted Media
Since 2011, Hebrew media is constantly reporting and criticizing the expansion efforts of this junction.
Interchanges are new in Israel. One of the achievements of Yitzhak Rabin in his second term as Prime Minister (1992-1995) was a decision to modernize Israel’s network of roads. The most visible result of this initiative was the creation of the Ayalon Highway (Road #20). Until then, there were no highways crossing the city; traveling from Haifa in the north to Jerusalem in the east through Tel Aviv was a nightmare. Ayalon Highway was designed as a 30km long, wide road connecting all the highways reaching Tel Aviv, mainly highways #1 from Jerusalem, and #2 from Haifa. It runs parallel to the Ayalon River (more often than not a languid stream), it includes several railways and an additional one is planned to be constructed over the water stream. On regular days, 600,000 cars pass through it; navigating through the area without using it, is unthinkable now. All the images of the metropolis showing modern roads depict different angles of this project (Superstorm in Tel Aviv).
Since then, the network was substantially extended. Invariably, the media criticize this, making fun of any politician announcing a “free-of-traffic-lights highway connecting x with y.” It never mentions the roads and junctions strategic role.
Invariably, these roads are always completed, with no public opposition discernible.
Invariably, these roads double as military routes.
Invariably, the conscripted media play the mass-distraction game requested by the government.
Any Spare Metal?
Israel is tiny. Everything is related, often in unexpected fashion. The expansion of the junction is causing odd results in the adjacent military bases.
Every year, several hundred guns are stolen from the IDF, mostly by Palestinians. I reported a recent such incident in Palestinians Take Weapon from IDF Soldier in Guard. In a rare show of extra-dry humor, Israeli media reports most of these events often blaming “metal-robbers.” The ongoing road-works have created a gold opportunity for these metal-robbers (plastic guns have been declared obsolete even in Israeli kindergarten).
Six months ago, an undisclosed number of weapons were taken from the Naftali Base, home to a reserve division. This is the less sensitive basis in the area adjacent to the junction (it is not on the junction itself), and thus an easier target. On June 15, 2013, the basis was entered again by metal-robbers who took for guns. The event is under investigation. The IDF said that the peripheral defenses would be upgraded.
What is the cost of the ongoing upgrade? $100 Million and at least 4 Guns.
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^* מטעם There is no easy way of transliterating this into the Roman alphabet since it lacks a glottal stop and guttural letters. Both are often represented with an apostrophe. Vowels of different length are crucial and cannot be represented in English. Unluckily, in this case all these can lead to confusions despite the distinctively different sound of the words. Moreover, Hebrew features two T’s, one can be aspirated while the other not. Thus the word opening this article is unrelated to מתאם which means “correlation,” or “coordinator,” depending on the pronunciation.