Text size  The head of the Finance Ministry's budgets division,
Kobi Haber, said yesterday that only businesses in the north of
the country would receive economic compensation for war-related
losses.  "There is no scenario in which we will expand the
compensation to businesses not in the north," Haber declared.
His remarks were intended to deflect pressure to expand the
compensation program on the part of Channel 2 television
franchisees, travel agents, airlines and other businesses
claiming economic damages brought on by the war.  Haber
estimates the final compensation bill at about $3 billion:
between NIS 600 million and NIS 1 billion for direct damage to
property, in addition to about NIS 2 billion for indirect
damages to businesses and workers in the north. This is a rough
estimate, based on the assumption that the war will not continue
for more than another week.  A $3 billion payout would nearly
wipe out the Property Tax Fund's $3.5 billion, and perhaps also
incur a budget outlay of the same amount. The