More elections
You are lucky your elections are over! Last night we had a Candidate's forum at the AACI, our local English-speaking association, for the upcoming local Israeli elections. There will be local/municipal elections on Nov 11 here. In Netanya there are 25 (yes, 25!) parties. There will be two votes, one for mayor (4 candidates) and one for City Council (25 parties). Last night only 8 of the parties came and made a presentation. They were very impressive, relatively young people who are truly commited to improvements in the City, focussing on environment, education, health and welfare.
Of those who spoke, I was particularly impressed by 4 candidates: A very tall, very attractive woman in a tight black dress, who nearly got my vote on looks alone. She is a Lieut. Col. in the IDF and is involved with a Party called "For Netanya" that is active in trying to ensure that the laws regarding health, welfare and education are implemented by the City. There was a young man representing the "Young Netanyaites" who spoke passionately about his commitment to improving the schools and the education of children in Netanya. Another was an immigrant from South Africa from a party called "Keshet" (rainbow) that seeks to help the most needy immigrants with little income and education. Also, there was a representative of a party called "Gal" (wave), who has been on the Council for several years, and is now the Head of the environment portfolio, and he is also a Doctor at the local Hospital. With representatives like these to choose between, it is surprising that the City is not already a shining star on the hill.
The Mayor spoke last, Mayor Miriam Fierberg-Ikar (the "Ikar" is her second marriage and means "main" in Hebrew). She is very well known to Netanyaites and is likely to win in a landslide, and that's why so few are opposing her. She was a member of Likud, but this time she is running as an independent with her own party "One Netanya." She is a tall, blond haired woman with a strong impression, and blasted all the other parties for claiming credit for things that she had done and implemented. Everyone gives her credit for doing a lot for Netanya in the past few years. She brought some of her predominantly young representatives for the City Countil with her, and asked us to vote for them so that she can really get things done.
At that point reality intervened, and one of our friends who was sitting next to us and we had brought by car, started to have chest pains, so I rushed her off to the emergency room and missed the end of the show. Fortunately, it was not a heart attack, and she was kept in hospital overnight for tests.
A controversial speech was given last week by an ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) candidate, Meir Porush, for Mayor in Jerusalem, who said that in future all Mayors in Israel will be Haredi (because of their higher birth rate). Later under pressure he amended this to mean only cities with a Haredi majority would have Haredi Mayors (because they vote as a block). By the way, in Israel if you talk about someone being "black" you don't mean the color off his skin, but rather his adherence to the Haredi way of life, since they all wear predominantly black. The current Mayor of Jerusalem, Haim Lupoliansky, was elected in precisely that way, because of the burgeoning Haredi population in Jerusalem. Many secular people do not like this because the Haredi population are not particularly Zionist and are not very efficient either. In Jerusalem a secular Israeli, Nir Barkat, a local businessman, is running against the Haredi candidate.
So we have more elections, and after these local ones is the Israeli General Election that is due to take place on February 10. It seems never-ending.
Of those who spoke, I was particularly impressed by 4 candidates: A very tall, very attractive woman in a tight black dress, who nearly got my vote on looks alone. She is a Lieut. Col. in the IDF and is involved with a Party called "For Netanya" that is active in trying to ensure that the laws regarding health, welfare and education are implemented by the City. There was a young man representing the "Young Netanyaites" who spoke passionately about his commitment to improving the schools and the education of children in Netanya. Another was an immigrant from South Africa from a party called "Keshet" (rainbow) that seeks to help the most needy immigrants with little income and education. Also, there was a representative of a party called "Gal" (wave), who has been on the Council for several years, and is now the Head of the environment portfolio, and he is also a Doctor at the local Hospital. With representatives like these to choose between, it is surprising that the City is not already a shining star on the hill.
The Mayor spoke last, Mayor Miriam Fierberg-Ikar (the "Ikar" is her second marriage and means "main" in Hebrew). She is very well known to Netanyaites and is likely to win in a landslide, and that's why so few are opposing her. She was a member of Likud, but this time she is running as an independent with her own party "One Netanya." She is a tall, blond haired woman with a strong impression, and blasted all the other parties for claiming credit for things that she had done and implemented. Everyone gives her credit for doing a lot for Netanya in the past few years. She brought some of her predominantly young representatives for the City Countil with her, and asked us to vote for them so that she can really get things done.
At that point reality intervened, and one of our friends who was sitting next to us and we had brought by car, started to have chest pains, so I rushed her off to the emergency room and missed the end of the show. Fortunately, it was not a heart attack, and she was kept in hospital overnight for tests.
A controversial speech was given last week by an ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) candidate, Meir Porush, for Mayor in Jerusalem, who said that in future all Mayors in Israel will be Haredi (because of their higher birth rate). Later under pressure he amended this to mean only cities with a Haredi majority would have Haredi Mayors (because they vote as a block). By the way, in Israel if you talk about someone being "black" you don't mean the color off his skin, but rather his adherence to the Haredi way of life, since they all wear predominantly black. The current Mayor of Jerusalem, Haim Lupoliansky, was elected in precisely that way, because of the burgeoning Haredi population in Jerusalem. Many secular people do not like this because the Haredi population are not particularly Zionist and are not very efficient either. In Jerusalem a secular Israeli, Nir Barkat, a local businessman, is running against the Haredi candidate.
So we have more elections, and after these local ones is the Israeli General Election that is due to take place on February 10. It seems never-ending.
posted by Jack Cohen at 7:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home