Bet Shemesh elections continues to provide drama

The Bet Shemesh municipal elections continue to make headlines and provide drama.

While all around the country (except Elad as well) municipal coalitions have been worked out, deals have been made, revenge has been taken or forgone, here in Bet Shemesh the drama continues. On two fronts.

On the one hand, the Attorney General today announced that he is considering ordering new elections in bet Shemesh. It seems the police investigation has discovered far more than just the initial finding of 200 fraudulent identity cards but seems to think there was much larger scale fraud in play.
(source: IBA)

On the other hand, the mayor, Moshe Abutbol, has not yet even been able to form a narrow coalition with his natural partners, the Haredi parties, let alone a broad coalition with other parties. The ashkenazi parties have been fighting over the important jobs and have not been giving in to each other. Each thinks it deserves the bulk of the spoils of war. And weirdly enough Shas is upset at Abutbol and is threatening to not join the coalition.

Sounds weird? Yes it does.

Moshe Abutbol is the head of the local Shas and his own party might not join his own coalition. I don't even know how that works. Will Moshe Abutbol vote against his own proposals?

The problem with Shas is that they are upset that Abutbol has given all the important roles in municipal government to the Ashkenazi parties. Rav Dovid Benizri, one of the leading rabbonim in Shas Bet Shemesh, and an influential rav in Bet Shemesh, has ordered Shas to not enter the coalition. he says Abutbol hasn't even sat with them to work out what roles they will be responsible for. I heard [part of] his interview on the radio this morning, and he is also featured in this Kikar article, using very harsh terminology to complain about Abutbol being easily pressured, he sold us out to the ashkenazim, etc. A Shas representative also complained about them being treated as secondary and given nothing important to be responsible for. In the Kikar article it talks about a Shas rep being offered the "revacha" department - social welfare, but it is a scaled down department with all the important parts of it having been stripped away and given to the ashkenazim.

On the radio they also asked Ashkenazi reps about the complaint of the Sefardim. The interview I heard was fairly dismissive of the complaint - he said they have the mayor and he is responsible for everything, so they have the most important task. As if that means the Sefardi reps have no right to think they deserve any other responsibility. He even said that if they want, we will take the mayorship and give them the other jobs. He said if they feel slighted and discriminated against they are welcome to come to his office and all issues where they feel discriminated against will be resolved. Again, no jobs, no responsibilities, but come to us and we'll provide you with what you need.

It might all just be posturing for a better negotiating hand, as often things are in politics. Still, over a month after the elections, 3 weeks since results were announced, and Moshe Abutbol has not been able to form even a narrow coalition with his natural partners.

Alexis de Tocqueville, a French historian, once famously said "people get the government they deserve"... Moshe Abutbol offers no surprises. He was the incumbent, he has been in city politics for 20 years. Everybody who voted for him rather than the alternative knew exactly what they were voting for and what they would get - they should not complain now when they see he is the same person he was when they complained about him during the previous term.

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