Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi announced today that the newly renovated separate beach will be open to the public on Shabbos. And entry will be free.

I assume that means the mixed-gender public, since the religious (who want separate swimming) wont be using it that day.

This is actually a result of last night's city council meeting in which Kubi had his last opportunity to pass the budget. Being that the budget did not pass, the City Council has been dispersed automatically. The councilmen will be given a disciplinary hearing to determine ii they acted in good faith. In a couple of weeks the mayor will be given a hearing to determine if he acted in good faith. Then a decision will be made by the Minister of Interior, Aryeh Deri, as to whether to appoint a council to run the city and remove Kubi from the position of mayor or whether to let Kubi continue running the city.

During the meeting last night, one of the threats waged by Kubi to try to "encourage" the city council to vote for the budget was that if they don't he would open the separate beach on Shabbos. So it looks like he is keeping that promise.

What are Kubi's chances of survival? There is no way to know. There are actually 5 towns around Israel int he same position, and Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri will have to be careful to treat all similarly, so as not to give any room for Kubi to claim Deri just wants him out. I am not really sure why he is fighting to stay in Tiberias, considering that he already announced he is running in the upcoming national elections, meaning he is leaving Tiberias politics anyway. I would guess the fight is to keep his name in the news and will serve his electoral campaign.

If Deri removes Kubi from office, which seems reasonable, Kubi will surely appeal it to the Supreme Court. he will claim that Deri is opposed to him and just wants him out. he will claim that the city council, likely at the behest of Deri, turned their noses against the desires of city residents and refused to join his coalition and to vote for the budget, just to remove him. A conspiracy of sorts against him, rather than truly working for the good of the people who elected him directly. How his arguments will be received by the Supreme Court I don't know, but this isn't over and it will be in the news for weeks to come...

In the meantime, I am pretty sure all the Haredi politicians looking at Tiberias and saying "take that" and saying that all other cities and mayors who want to mess with Shabbos should see what we did to Kubi, should calm down a little. Talk like that will only help Kubi show that there is a conspiracy against him.