Municipal elections are coming up. They are scheduled for this coming November. It is a bit up in the air because of the looming possibility of national elections.
In case national elections are called, and the preferred date for those seems to be November, municipal elections might be pushed off, or they might be held on the same day, with every voter voting twice - once for his national selection and once for the municipal selection.
Municipal electioneering has been heating up fairly quickly. In the local Bet Shemesh scene, parties have been very active. The biggest move to date was a major local Likud figure dropping out of the local Likud. There have been many other things going on with the various parties, as they are all jockeying to come to elections with some sort of accomplishment to show the voters, even if they did absolutely nothing the previous 4 years.
There are also some new parties opening up hoping to win spots in the next municipal government. There has been talk of a new party, TOV, opening up due to the growing disatisfaction with the local Degel branch.
Just recently a new party opened its doors and announced they are running for a spot in City Hall. They are called ABA, or Anashim B'shvil Anashim. This is "a movement to organize the Anglos of Israel into a political voice, beginning with Beit Shemesh."
I am not really sure whether the anglo community needs its own specific representatives, but they are hoping to draw the vote from Anglos who are either disenfranchised with the local Degel party or Anglos who are not interested in Degel and would vote NRP or Likud just because of nothing better to vote for.
I suspect this party is really just a ruse. the founding members of the ABA party are all members of Degel HaTorah, and even on the steering committee of Degel. At the recent Degel Bet Shemesh conference in which they discussed plans for the upcoming elections and positioning of candidates, one of the founding members of ABA was one of the main speakers.
the story, as I see it, is this: Degel is very concerned about losing power, or not gaining as much as previously expected, in the upcoming elections. They know many voters have become disenfranchised with them over the past few years.
Degel has not done much for the common resident. Their reps have very publicly helped the kannoim get their requests much more than they have helped regular Haredi schools and shuls. In general Degel has never been a great friend of the working baakhabayis, as they have always claimed their main concern is the yeshivas and avreichim, and once somebody leaves Yeshiva and goes to work, his needs are secondary to those of the yeshivas.
So in our community, where many people who would vote Degel are people who work, their concerns are not dealt with. They are not Degel's concerns.
So Degel is worried that all these people will turn away from Degel this time, because Degel has proven itself as having nothing to offer them. They are worried TOV will actually open up and take away many votes, as it did in Beitar, as TOV is directing its efforts specifically towards that community. They are worried people will vote for other random parties, such as LIKUD or NRP, as Shalom Lerner has put out great efforts towards attracting the anglo working class voter.
They have therefore opened up this new party under a different name, ABA, claiming to have "anglo issues" at its forefront. They are hoping that the anglo voter will vote ABA instead of TOV or something else, thus they will retain these votes and after elections come to a merger or some other form of participation between ABA and Degel.
As an aside, I am not sure why Kvish 10, which they use as one of the main examples of issues they will tackle, is an anglo issue. Also, the issues at Park Ayalon - why is that an anglo issue?
But back from that small digression... If you want to vote Degel, go ahead and vote Degel. If the ABA platform speaks to you and you want to vote ABA, go ahead and vote ABA.
But if you do not want to vote for them, do not be fooled by the new wrapper. ABA is Degel and if you vote ABA you get Degel.
If they use "Dancing Queen" as their party's song, then I'll vote for ABA.
ReplyDeleteAnd let us not forget that the local representatives of Degel Hatorah have been supporting the hooligans in Bet Shemesh.
ReplyDeleteI object to your use of the term "kannoim" as "kannaut" has a number of positive connotations in the Torah. Were these people only jealous for G-d or the honor of the Torah! We all know that they are jealous for racketeering and imposing their lifestyle and business interests.
ReplyDeleteI strongly encourage/implore you should use the term "charediban" instead which obviously is devoid of any positive connotations.
I hear your protest and will take it under advisement.
ReplyDeletesomeone posted your post on their website and this is their reply:
ReplyDeleteComment by Aharon Ungar 16 hours ago
The above notice was posted on a blog. I am very happy that Yishai S. has copied it here to our site so we can clarify the author's opinions which are presented as facts. First of all, as our site points out, ABA is NOT a political party, nor have we anywhere stated that our intention is to become one. In fact, we don't want to set up our own party. As it says right on our home page, our political goal is to organize Anglos into a voice so we will have influence. The point being to bring attention to issues that are of concern to local residents (particularly Anglos) and are not being attended to by the powers that be, and, hopefully, help resolve them. We will then negotiate with existing parties to join one of them. In exchange we will want at least one of our representatives to be high enough on their list to insure representation in the Iriya.
In addition, we posted on our home page that MK Rav Ravitz from Degel HaTorah spoke at our initial meeting. If we were trying to hide a relationship with Degel, do you think we would have invited him and pointed this out to everybody? Certainly, the organizers of ABA have a relationship with Degel. But as Rav Ravitz said in his remarks, whether ABA becomes part of Degel or not, is not nearly as important as our getting involved in the system. He said that we have a lot to offer the country and we have a responsibility to ourselves and the country to be part of the system.
To date, even after the public announcement online about ABA, the only party to approach ABA and say they would like to work with us is Degel. We are willing to speak with anybody. Our goals are clearly stated. Does ABA have an informal relationship with Degel? Yes. Is ABA part of Degel? No. Are we going to become part of Degel? We don't know yet, but if we do, it will be very clearly stated and announced.
So register on www.ABAisrael.com and check back as often as you can; join or start a group and get involved. Then you, too, can have a say on what ABA's direction will be!
meshugana - first of all, I wrote that I suspect. I presented nothing as a fact. until it actually happens, it is all suspicion and analysis and no fact.
ReplyDeleteSecond of all, i will copy and paste from their wesbite - "ABA, Anashim B'shvil Anashim, is a movement to organize the Anglos of Israel into a political voice, beginning with Beit Shemesh."
What do they mean by "political voice"? maybe they have not declared anything formally yet, so they can say they are not a party, but it looks like that is their intention.
Why did they invite Ravitz? How do I know. But who else would they have invited? Netanyahu? Yuval Steinmetz? Zahava Gal-On? They invited Ravitz because he is an MK and they have a connection to him. They have nothing to be ashamed of by inviting Ravitz even if they are a party, and therefore would have no reason to hide it.
That is why i did not even use that point in my analysis - because it is meaningless, as who else would they have invited?
another quote from the site - "He invited ABA to become part of Degel HaTorah, but emphasized, even if we form our own party, the important thing is that our voices should be heard."
ReplyDeleteThey even have a section called "Immediate Political Goals" in which they say "and negotiate with existing major parties for high-level representation on their list, thereby assuring us at least one seat on the City Council. In exchange, we will encourage our constituency to vote for that party."./
So they are getting ivolved in politics, but have not yet formally declared themselves as a party.
So I still stand by my original post.
and I have no problem with them being a political party. I just said that if you are not voting Degel because you do not want to, don't think ABA is an alternative. It is the same people and the same as Degel. if you want to vote for them because you believe in them, go ahead. Just dont be duped to vote for them thinking you are getting something else.
ReplyDelete