Strange - just the other day Peppe Alou, Jerusalem city councilman from Meretz, said he had been offered a million shekels by haredim to run for mayor of Jerusalem, thus potentially splitting the secular vote and paving the way for a Moshe Le-On victory, and that he rejected the offer.

Today, Peppe Alou has announced he is running for mayor of Jerusalem, though he says he would not take the money from the haredim. Alou also rejects the claim that his candidacy will split the cote from Barkat and bring Le-On and his Haredi supporters to power.

Alou explained his move to Haaretz saying that they expect Le-On to disappear back to Givatayim, as his campaign has been going nowhere. Alou says he has polls that show Le-On is not a serious threat. Despite that, Alou says that if he sees Le-On and the haredim  on their way up, he would then withdraw his candidacy, as he has no intention of giving the city to the haredim.

Alou surely knows that he has no chance of winning, but he says sometimes a candidate runs not to win but for fruits that might be reaped a few years down the line. Alou says his candidacy is part of the fight to keep the city pluralistic, to show that he and Meretz do not agree with the policies of the people in place currently.

To NRG Alou said that there is a problem in jerusalem of the city going through a process of Haredization, and this problem had already had started at the foundation of the State. Alou says they have been fighting it for a long time - they fought to have the city pool open with mixed swimming, they fought to have streets open on Shabbos and they will continue fighting to keep freedom in jerusalem.

Talk about a flip-flop.. will run, wont run... Alou seems to usually be pretty consistent. While I would not call this a gimmick, he must surely be angling for something, whether it is a better negotiating position against Barkat for better positions in city council, or if it is something else..