We are now heading into a new era….Jerusalem will have a new mayor in 4 days! (And you thought I meant the Obama era…well, the world is still spinning, isn’t it?). Seriously, now that the US election is over (Kol Hakavod l’Barack Obama, he ran a great campaign) we can concentrate on the Jerusalem elections. Actually, mayors and city councils all over Israel are up for election on November 11. The voter turnout in each city is variable, with small towns having generally high turnout (Your vote does make a difference!) whereas in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, people tend to be a bit more apathetic. In Jerusalem this is coupled by the fact that less than 5% of the Arab residents vote, primarily for political reasons rather than apathy. The claim is that if they voted in a Jerusalem election, that is tantamount to admitting that the city actually exists and has a democratic leadership. For them, the preferred alternative is….actually it’s not clear. In any case, they don’t vote, then they have no one to complain to when their municipal services are not the same as those of the other sectors of the city. It is why there are a small number of Arab citizens trying to increase the voter turnout. We’ll see.
As for the candidates, there is a lot of room for the sarcastic and satiric commentators. First, the mayor appears to be running separate from the parties that make up the council. No one can explain why. The most serious candidate, Nir Barakat is the frontrunner. He has been leader of the opposition for 4 years. He has an impressive track record of successful projects, especially in the education sector. He lost the last election to Uri Lupolianski, the Haredi mayor, because the Haredi (Ultra-Orthodox) population voted en bloc last time. This time, the Haredi candidate is a real politician, Meir Porush, who was housing minister under Netanyahu. The reason the incumbent is not running again is due to an agreement between Degel Hatorah and Agudat Yisrael, two haredi parties, that they would alternate candidates. Great in theory, but it only worked the first time. This time, it took a long time to wrangle out who would run, because Lupolianski thought that since he was Mayor and the city is still standing, he would automatically win again. However, based on the agreement, he could not, so he tried to find away to run anyway, but eventually did not. Then the former head of Shas, Aryeh Deri (freshly out of jail for bribery) announced his candidacy for Mayor, but the courts ruled that it was too close to his release. The indication is that the Haredi community is going to vote with their consciences this time, rather than by rabbinic decree (probably because no one agrees this time).
The other two mayoral candidates are also worth some digital ink. Arkady Gedymaki is a Russian Businessman, famous for buying Bikur Cholim Hospital when it was in a hole, and building a camp for Sederot children and renting a hotel for refugees from northern towns during the second Lebanon war. So far so good. Only problem with this extremely wealthy individual is where he made all his money. If he loses the election he will likely end up in France where he is on trial for arms running into Angola. Then there is Dan Birron, an entertainer and the head of the Green Leaf party. That’s pretty funny, made more so when you see M. Birron’s picture or hear him speak. He’s been smoking a bit too much of that Green Leaf. The best irony, however, I leave for the Meretz Party. Their two slogans are “Free Jerusalem from being Haredified (loose translation)” and “a Jerusalem for all” which may be contradictory. Their posters portray a smiling guy with a long grey beard who looks like Fidel Castro, “the great liberator”, but is actually a guy named Pepe Alalu, a Meretz city counselor (check him out on Facebook). Next to these posters are caricatures of a smiling gentleman with a long white beard, made to look like Meir Porush (http://www.porush.co.il/) . Two bearded gentlemen, at either end of the political spectrum? Maybe Meretz has a guilty conscience? Or maybe they haven’t been to Cuba to see the wonderful quality of life of the population (especially the Jews) there?
In any case, let’s hope they get few votes.
Several highlights this week included Barbara spending 3 days in Tel Aviv, presenting to a day long workshop at Tel Aviv University with her friend and colleague Isabelle Gelinas. It was very successful (they even got to the beach!) and we enjoyed having Isabelle visit. The professors of Occupational Therapy at TAU showed them around in true Israeli style. There was a lineup of people to take them to interesting neighborhoods in Tel Aviv, Jaffa and Mini-Israel as well as to dinners and lunches. Next week Barbara returns to Tel Aviv for another seminar and a meeting in the Ministry of Health to discuss driving rehabilitation strategies. Tuesday night we restarted our dinners at Elan and Nomi’s, which had a hiatus for the chagim. I think with Nomi retuning to school, our cooking will be even more appreciated. Ariel also joined us, and now that he is eating Yeshiva food again….well, you get the message. We had a sleepover with Shoshanna on Wednesday night, to let Ema and Abba go to a close friend’s wedding. Eizeh Booba! (what a doll!).
We just came back from a tour of several interesting Jerusalem sights with our firneds the Zochers. More about this extraordinary couple next week. Shabbat will be in Yerushalyim to recover for the week to come. Besides political commentary I am doing experiments and finished after 8:30 in the lab Thursday night…..
Shabbat Shalom and the best to all!
Barbara and Bruce
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