Problems existed from the start, since there were no budget funds allocated for the project, and ministers opposed it either on financial grounds or out of suspicions that its creation had nothing to do with the establishment of an industrial town, but masked an intention to make a civilian settlement, something opposed by Mapam. Whatever monies were used, Yossi Sarid complained, would detract from funds targeted for Israel's own impoverished development towns. The evidence suggests that the decision was inspired more by political needs, including the perceived need to placate far-right groups, rather than respond to the requirements of the city of Jerusalem. Gershom Gorenberg argues that the cabinet compromise was 'a ruse' that spoke of setting up factory housing when in fact the aim was to create a fully fledged settlement afterwards. Galili himself argued that a settlement between Jericho and East Jerusalem was needed to keep Jordanians away from the Holy City. In an interview several decades later, the mayor of one of the larger settlements claimed that the aim of establishing Ma'ale Adumim was to 'protect Jerusalem from Arabs' and secure the road to the Jordan Valley.