Heres an explanation in English of whats been going on in Jerusalem since the elections (first of all I should note, Ive been re-elected! My hospital time made this announcement a little late): Nir Barkat, after winning 51% of the vote, has had a mighty strange way of putting together a coalition. His party shrank from 6 to 4 seats, but he has promised 2 of the 4 to be deputy mayors (he as mayor is a third of the 4). Apart from that, he promised another deputy mayorship to the single representative of a new Haredi party. After that, he signed an agreement with the ultra-right wing 2-person party United Jerusalem (that supported his opponent) and gave them the finance portfolio! He promised a half-term deputy mayorship to another single-rep. party, Yael Antebi of Pisgat Zeev (also right-wing and religious) and gave most of the education portfolio to a person from the Bayit Hayehudi, another single-rep. party. What about the parties that supported him? The secular voters? The larger parties? Not important, according to Nir. Hed rather settle all the little bickering parties who might give him a hard time, make sure Shas is behind him, and just assume that all the center and left, all the secular and moderates, are in his pocket. Well, we have surprised him. We formed a bloc of 8 representatives (Meretz-Avoda, Hitorerut, Yerushlamim) and are refusing to let his divide and conquer policies force us to accept the terrible deals hes been making. For now, we are holding strong, together, and waiting for him to come to his senses. For now, hes in a panic -- but were not. We know were right and that he should start undoing his mistakes.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Nov 2013 22:28:27 +0000
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