Elections in Safed/Eli Ashkenazi
Aryeh Deri had a reason to celebrate last night.
At 02:00 in the morning, as if it were the middle of the day, he called Yehuda Botbol, the Shas representative in the city of Elad, and congratulated him on the change that put him in the mayor's office. It was not another victory in the local authority elections that were held yesterday; in view of the eastern majority in the city, Elad is supposed to be registered in the tabu under the name of Deri's party. Until 2013, the person sitting in the mayor's office was a member of Shas, but that year a change took place: Yisrael Parosh, the son of Minister Meir Parosh, was elected again and again.
Deri, for his part, did everything to seize the leadership of the city, without success.
until yesterday
Political sources claimed that in one of the conversations Deri had with Degal HaTorah chairman, MK Moshe Gafni, he suggested: "Give me Elad, and take a few cities in exchange."
A political agreement was signed between Degel Torah and Shas, under which Gafni was supposed to cash the check and support Shas' candidacy.
But the new Lithuanian leadership, which took the place of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein and Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, decided otherwise.
Gafni had no choice but to take on the war with Deri, and the latter waged it with all his might.
He drove a wedge into the Agudath Israel, transferred the Gur Hasidim and the Vizhnitz Hasidim to his side, and returned the management of the city to his hands.
The deal that went wrong: "Give Elad to Shas, and take other cities in return." Gafni and Deri/Flash 90, Yonatan Zindel
And it wasn't the only ultra-Orthodox victory celebrated last night.
In Safed, an ultra-Orthodox mayor was elected for the first time - Yossi Kakon, a Shas representative. Half of the city's residents are ultra-Orthodox, but until now there has never been a mayor from the sector. This time, Kakon succeeded in uniting all the ultra-Orthodox in the city around him and ousting the incumbent mayor, Shuki Ohana. After one term in office. The sector saw this as another strategic goal that was conquered last night.
Other victories were also recorded in Tiberias, where Yosef Nevea, a secularist who received ultra-Orthodox support, won; as well as in Arad, where Yair Ma'ain is leading, who received the support of the Gur Hasidic community, to which many of the residents belong A similar case, and no less dramatic, we find in Ashdod - with the support of Mayor Yehiel Lesri, who won another term, in which Shas and Torah Judaism will be the largest parties in the next coalition under him.
To this we can add the ultra-Orthodox majority in the Jerusalem City Council, the expected second round in Beit Shemesh, in which at least one ultra-Orthodox candidate will participate, and a series of other achievements.
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Half of the city's residents are ultra-Orthodox, but only now is the mayor also from the sect.
Yossi Kakon celebrates his victory in Safed/Flash 90, David Cohen
If the Knesset has two factions and three ultra-Orthodox parties, which usually cooperate on most of the burning issues on the agenda - in the ultra-Orthodox cities the situation was the opposite.
The parties ran the campaigns when they were divided into factors, sects and sub-currents, with countless deals and rivalries, which made the municipal struggle look like a world war.
The ultra-orthodox are the real winners in the local elections, but even what looks like a dream victory from the outside is clouded by internal divisions and bad blood between the factions - wounds that will take a long time to heal.
The ultra-Orthodox achievement can be attributed, to a large extent, to the relatively low voter turnout in the general public - compared to the full mobilization of the ultra-Orthodox in most local authorities.
The war in Gaza probably also played a significant role, as did the natural increase among the ultra-Orthodox.
All of these were expressed in maximizing the potential of the ultra-Orthodox vote at the polling stations, which reached a rate of almost 90% everywhere.
It is not unreasonable to estimate that what we saw last night was only the promo for what we will see in the national elections, which will take place when they take place.
A victory sponsored by the ultra-Orthodox.
Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lesri votes in the local elections/Flash 90, Liron Moldovan
What is certain is that the ultra-Orthodox public came out to fight in the local elections.
Neither the war in Gaza, nor the abductees, nor even the draft law agitated the sector as much as the attempt to win in the ultra-Orthodox cities, and moreover, in the mixed cities.
The attempt, in any case, was largely successful.
But don't be alarmed.
Cities sometimes change their character, and the ultra-orthodox are certainly part of that, sometimes even as a factor driving the change.
But to paint the ultra-Orthodox as the ones who "took control" of the cities and to shout Geweld?
This is obscene and unnecessary talk.
One way or another, the ultra-Orthodox achievement in the elections, and the expected political battle over the conscription law, only re-floods the most significant question here: Will the ultra-Orthodox sector take one more step into the heart of Israeli society, or will it continue to act as a supported minority that prefers to watch from the sidelines and not take responsibility?
More on the same topic:
local elections
Elad
Ashdod
Zefat
Tiberias
Arad