Mar 25, 2018

Barkat leaving local for national politics

To me there are 2 interesting aspects of Nir Barkat's announcement today about deciding to not run for re-election as Mayor of Jerusalem but to run on the Likud list for Knesset.

And they are:
1. that he has always refused a salary for public office and has taken just 1nis per year as mayor and will continue to do so when serving the public in national office. His decision to only take a salary of 1nis per year as mayor is well known, adding future offices to it is interesting. Barkat by law has to take a salary, which is why he takes 1nis, but he should also donate that 1nis to charity so he can really say he has taken nothing from the public for his service.

2. What happens next in Jerusalem? The recent fake fighting between Avigdor Lieberman and Aryeh Deri and other Haredi representatives put Moshe Leon's chances in question, even though they officially made up immediately after the "fight". Will a Haredi rep recapture the votes of the city residents? Will another secular representative take over where Barkat left off? The mayhem and fighting for the spot will surely keep things interesting for the foreseeable future.



------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------

6 comments:

  1. This will indeed be a breath of fresh air for Israeli politics. The only problem is it is going to take time for him to take root in the Likud. As a successor for Bibi he would be fantastic Unfortunately vBibi may hsve to train pretty soon and there is no one really worthy of taking over So I suppose we will have to wait until Nir is not so far.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Bibi already had him over yesterday. I think he's fast-track grooming him. If national elections are not held before local ones, I wouldn't be surprised if Barkat becomes foreign minister.

    Zeev Elkin is being mentioned for mayor. He's religious (and Russian) and Likud, and is "Jerusalem Minister." He doesn't live in Jerusalem (he lives in the Gush), but that didn't stop Leon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. By the way, Trump wanted to forgo his salary entirely, but was told he had to accept at least most of it by law. So he plows it back into government- I think he gives it to the National Parks.

    ReplyDelete
  4. he should donate it to the wall. or the jerusalem embassy

    ReplyDelete
  5. Disagree strongly.
    Barkat is a centrist without strong enough values. He may well be an asset on the national scene,he is however ill fitting for Likud .

    ReplyDelete