It is now official. For now at least.

Minister Zeev Elkin replaced Minister Aryeh Deri as the Minister in charge of deciding the fate of Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi, after it was determined the Deri has a conflict of interest. After Kubi's disciplinary hearing, Elkin took the required time to consider the matter, and has now announced that he is removing Kubi from office. In Kubi's place will be a steering committee headed by the Deputy Director of the Ministry of Interior Muni Matouk to bring Tiberias back to healthy financial sustainability and get a budget passed. The city council of Tiberias is also being removed form office and the steering committee replacing them will be made up of various State employees from different offices.

I don't know if we've heard the last word from Ron Kubi yet - he'll probably appeal to the Supreme Court claiming collusion between Deri and Elkin - but his career seems to be over for now.

reports have it that the Likud has refused Mayor Ron Kubi entry into a Likud rally in Tiberias with PM Netanyahu.

Considering that they were friends, or at least friendly, in the past, and Kubi was somewhat associated with the Likud, it is strange to hold a rally in a town and refuse entry to the mayor, let alone a friendly mayor.

I wonder if this will be used by Kubi in an appeal if Minister Zeev Elkin decides to remove him from his mayoral seat to claim that the Likud is in cahoots with Deri as  cooperation and the conflict of interest deemed on Deri should be applied to the Likud as well...

I want to send a message to Minister Elkin. There are primaries and the Likudniks here will not forgive you if you will simply be a rubber stamp for Aryeh Deri. This is how it seems to be that for the moment you are Deri's rubber stamp.

  -- Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi, after his disciplinary hearing. Minister Zeev Elkin was appointed to be the minister in charge of deciding what to do with Kubi, after Kubi has failed to pass a budget in Tiberias after numerous attempts, and Aryeh Deri was disqualified by the courts from dealing with the situation for conflict of interest. So now Kubi is threatening Elkin

The saga of Ron Kubi and Tiberias continues. While it started off as interesting and somewhat curious, Kubi has gotten boring and uninteresting in recent months. That being said, I have no idea if he is functioning well or poorly as  a mayor - the only news I hear about him is regarding his fighting with the haredi politicians.

Kubi last chance via extension, as per the courts, to pass the city budget and run the city as mayor has come and gone. With his failing to pass the budget, again, Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri had scheduled a hearing for Kubi as required before relieving him of his duties as mayor and appointing a Committee to run the city in his stead.

Kubi appealed to the Supreme Court again and the hearing was today.

Before stating what happened, I would comment that I did not understand the purpose of their previous decision. They allowed Kubi to continue in his position, but also allowed Deri to reinstate the city council despite the fact that they had resigned (as they had been required to as part of their final vote against the budget). Giving Kubi another chance while placing before him the same impediment that he has had for the past year seemed pointless to me, and it turned out to be pointless as they continued to block him from passing a budget and forming a coalition. The court should have either removed Kubi in favor of a committee or let Kubi back in but with a replacement city council (replaced by a committee). What was the point in putting everything back the exact same way it had been before?

Anyways, today's hearing throws the ball back into Deri's court again. No decision has yet been arrived at, but the State was unimpressed with the fact that Deri has called Kubi names, such as a troll, and also concluded that the government has two weeks to explain why the Minister of Interior does not appoint a new committee to function in place of the city council that resigned. And, to explain why Deri should not recuse himself from dealing with this, s a conflict of interest due to personal animosity between the two parties, and appoint another minister to handle things in his place regarding the issue of Ron Kubi.

What will happen? Who knows - definitely not me. The saga that looked like it was coming to an end is going to continue now for at least a little bit longer...

I can't take it any more. I am going to leave Tiberias, until the decrees of Antiochus over the city will pass..... because of the decrees of Haman Harasha, a creature whose evil I have not seen paralleled ever in the world, he wants to hate me, I am running away from Tiberias.

  -- Rav Dov Kook, about Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi

I don't get Ron Kubi and his campaign for the Knesset. He hardly has much of a campaign going, at least that i can see. All the parties are putting out slogans and campaign videos and responding to events and situations with statements.

I don't see any of that from Kubi. The only videos I see him put out are his selfie videos that pretty much all look the same. His entire campaign seems to be going from city to city and getting into pathetic arguments with a handful of bored Haredi teenagers and documenting it to his Facebook page. I am not sure why he thinks that is either mature or will be enough to propel him into national office.

For a guy who ran a successful campaign as an underdog to become mayor of Tiberias, one might think he would have a decent campaign going. For a guy who talks so much, one might think he has something to say that voters might be interested in hearing. Kubi has been boring me lately, and I was so looking forward to an exciting campaign from him. I dare say, Kubi has gotten boring, and even pathetic.

The Show Must Go On, by Queen, is probably Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi's theme song.

Kubi had his hearing today in the Supreme Court as he appealed Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri's right to hold a disciplinary hearing foir Kubi with the potential of relieving him of his duties and appointing a committee to run Tiberias due to Kubi's failure to pass the budget. The decision of the Supreme Court was to delay the hearing until the end of September, after the upcoming national elections, essentially giving Kubi more time to pass the budget. Being that the city council of Tiberias has dispersed, the Supreme Court recommended Kubi continue to serve as mayor along with a committee made up of State employees who will function in the capacity of a city council. Minister Aryeh Deri requested a week to consider the Court's decision and recommendation.

Kubi, representing himself, basically presented two directions to argue his case:
1. Aryeh Deri cannot sack him due to Deri being a representative of a transition government. A transition government waiting for elections is basically stuck in a holding pattern and legally can do very little. So, Kubi argued, that Deri right now does not have the authority to fire and replace him

2. Deri did not act in a professional manner with regards to Kubi and Tiberias. because they were diametrically opposed to each other, Deri acted unfairly towards him and conspired with the city council to make sure the budget doesn't pass and to therefore have Kubi removed. Basicall a conflict of interests. To this end Kubi satisfactorily proved by presenting statements made by Deri against Kubi. Kubi also showed protocols of the city council meetings that showed that budgetary issues were never debated or argued and discussed, but when he was trying to pass the budget, the opposing city council members basically tried to filibuster, wasting time talking and arguing about all sorts of other things in order to avoid the ability to vote.

The court basically accepted Kubi's arguments over Deri's and now we await Deri's response in a week. I don't know what happens if Deri rejects the court's proposal, but I suspect he will accept it. He does not really have much of a choice, and he does not want to give Kubi even more fuel for Kubi's upcoming campaign for the elections.

For Ron Kubi the show must go on, but now it seems he is going to have run the city, pass the budget, again with people appointed by Deri, presumably, and campaign for the national elections. Whether he can pass the budget or not, he will try to ride this right into the Knesset. If he gets in, he drops Tiberias anyway. If not, he probably will be out of Tiberias shortly after that. But for now we still get the sideshow called Ron Kubi.

Reports have been saying that the "Shabbos bus" in Tiberias yesterday only had two passengers - Ron Kubi himself and an assistant.

Whether that is true or not, I don't know. The report is about the beginning of the line at a specific time. Maybe at other times of day there were other passengers, or maybe not. Maybe at other stops other passengers got on, or maybe not. I don't know, but the report says only two passengers were on the bus, Kubi and an assistant.

Kubi should not feel bad and should not force the issue. If people are not using the bus, it means there is not enough interest to justify it, from a financial perspective. Maybe it needs time to build up or to get people aware of it running and the schedule, to get people used to its availability and to use it? Maybe, but with the loud marketing he has done for it it seems fair to assume most people know about it. If they are not using it, just kill it. If people complain that he stopped running the bus, he can just point to the fact that they were not using it. If he wants to keep it running, ostensibly because the people want it to be available,  he should warn the people that if they don't use it he wont operate it any longer.

No harm no foul. There need be no shame in saying that people have alternate methods of transportation and don't want to use that bus he has provided.

 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.

Last night was supposed to be the final deadline for towns that have yet to pass the 2019 budget to do so. Failing to do so at the June 30 dealine would mean dispersal of the City Council, the mayor heading to a disciplinary hearing to ensure that he truly put forth his best efforts to pass the budget, and consideration for removal with the appointment of a ruling committee to run the city.

There are five cities/towns in Israel that were at risk last night of failing to meet the deadline. The only interesting one is Tiberias. The others are not in the news because they seem to be boring, though I am sure if I looked for the info about them it is probably available. Tiberias is interesting because its mayor is Ron Kubi. Kubi has been a loudmouth, especially against the Haredi politicians, with mixed results in Tiberias, though he has not been able to form a local coalition or pass a budget with the other parties, besides for his own, basically refusing to work with him (they blame him for not making any efforts to pass a fair budget and to deal properly with the needs of the city). Besides for that they have basically decided to hold strong against Kubi and not allow him to pass the budget in the hope that this will eventually lead to his removal.

Last night Kubi was to host a final attempt to pass the budget. Minister of Interior Aryeh Deri announced that he is giving the affected towns an extra two weeks extension to pass the budget.

That means that Deri, who has been regularly attacked by Kubi, essentially saved Kubi's job for now. Kubi, and the other mayors, has another two weeks to try to get one more vote to pass the budget.

The haredi media are all a bit shocked the Deri saved Kubi's neck, after Kubi has incessantly attacked Deri. Personally I think it was a good move by Deri. For Deri to remove him without a public uproar and visuals of a conflict of interest, it has to appear completely justified and on the up and up. Deri cannot appear in the slightest to be taking revenge on Kubi or to have a dislike for Kubi as the cause.

By giving Kubi the extra two weeks (after the previous extensions came due), which anyways he can be pretty sure will not help, he is showing that he is not biased and has done everything possible to give Kubi a fair chance and enough time to pass the budget. If Kubi still remains unsuccessful, if Deri should choose to remove him from office, he will be able to do so with relatively clean hands and the removal will look as justified as it actually will be.

Deri is no dummy.

I'll be pushed out of office? Aryeh Deri won't even give me a disciplinary hearing. He knows that if he does, instead of bringing in 6-7 seats in the upcoming elections, I'll bring in 15 seats..

  -- Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi, about the possibility of being relieved of his duties as mayor after failing to pass the budget in the third and final attempt

Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi announcing that he is founding a new party and running for Knesset fascinates me.

Kubi has not been successful getting together a coalition in Tiberias and has not been able to pass the budget there. He is under threat from the Ministry of Interior for removal from office. He has name recognition, but no real accomplishments other than angering the Haredi politicians. It does seem though that when running for office name recognition is the most important factor, so at least he has that.

When the idea was first publicized a few days ago, the Haredi press celebrated saying this is directly against Lieberman and will take away votes from him. That made me wonder how they forgot that he has fought them and attacked them far worse than Lieberman ever did and if he makes it into the Knesset, which won't necessarily happen, he is sure to continue along that line. They dont have much about this to be happy about.

Others thought it is just to help Netanyahu. They seem to be friends, and in the past Kubi has spoken out in support of Netanyahu. And Netanyahu wants to hurt Lieberman's chances of getting in. So maybe. But still, even if it all pans out with Kubi hurting Lieberman and getting into the Knesset, Netanyahu's other coalition partners won't be happy about it.

Then yesterday Kubi himself attacked the Haredi politicians when explaining why he is running. He also said he will demand the Ministry of Interior and take it away from Deri. Again,  another reason this does not make sense and why the Haredi parties being happy about this does not make sense. In Tiberias the Haredi parties have refused to cooperate with anything Kubi has tried to do - in the Knesset they will play nicer together?

He might just be running as the next natural step after some municipal success (in winning the elections with some added fame). He might be running to save himself from the problems of Tiberias and the risk of getting removed from office. He might be running to help Bibi, to hurt Lieberman and/or to fight the Haredi parties, or any combination of reasons, these or others. He definitely makes the upcoming elections more interesting.

I am not sure it is accurate to call Avigdor Lieberman anti-haredi, as he has been called recently. He has worked very well in the past with the Haredi parties and has never really pushed any anti-haredi agenda. The closest he got is this last government when he insisted on the draft law being passed as it had been formulated by the Defense Ministry without changes. Does that one item make him anti-haredi? He never insisted on forcing secular studies in Haredi schools, never called for lowering budgets to yeshivas or cutting child allowances or anything like that. But, since he is being called anti-haredi, between Lieberman, Lapid and Kubi, assuming they and their parties all get into the Knesset, the Haredi parties will have their most challenging, and probably difficult, Knesset ever. I wonder if they will have ever had more [perceived] enemies in the Knesset than in this coming one.

Personally I think Lieberman and Kubi will both hurt the Likud more than anything will hurt Yisrael Beyteynu in these elections, but that remains to be seen. The best scenario, for Netanyahu, I think, is Kubi hurting Lieberman and taking away enough votes that Lieberman does not get in, but also Kubi himself not passing the minimum threshold. Then Netanyahu has knocked out Lieberman and owes nothing to another potential coalition partner who would have friction with the others.

hmmm.. good or bad?
on the one hand, it gets him out of Tiberias and maybe the fighting there will calm down. On the other hand, that fighting will move to the Knesset...

Mayor of Tiberias Ron Kubi posted the following picture from post-LagBaomer Meron, shocked at the amount of garbage left behind and says this is what Tiberias was like as well before Pesach, and that everyone must understand that they should be concerned for the environment.


While Kubi didnt mention the Haredimm specifically, and lots of non-Haredim visited Meron on Lag Baomer as well, the Haredi news sites understood Kubi to be attacking the Haredim for this mess, and they took offense at this.

When an estimated half a million people come to a place over the course of one day to celebrate, especially in such a small area, I think it is reasonable to expect a mess will be caused. The authorities that had budgets to run the event and prepare for the event should have also included the need for post-event clean up. Maybe they did and this picture was simply taken before the clean up was finished. But even if they didn't the mess,  or at least a mess, is to be expected in such a situation - the question is if the administration is dealing with the clean up or not.

According to Actualic, the Haredi community of Tiberias has come up with a plan to oppose the increased public chilul shabbos in Tiberias that has been encouraged by the mayor, Ron Kubi, especially the restaurants.

The plan is to run a boycott against shops and restaurants that will open on Shabbos. Haredi leadership in town will map out all the businesses around Tiberias and will detail all the shops that open on Shabbos. Haredi residents will be encouraged to go into the shops listed and ask them if they are open on Shabbos. If the shopkeep answers that it is, the potential customer will leave the shop.

Naftali Terbalasi, one of the people behind the campaign, said that anyone who thinks the Haredi community does not shop in town and does not support the local restaurants will soon learn the Haredi purchasing power. Who else comes to vacation here during Pesach vacation? In another month, the Haredi community will come here in droves to vacation in Tiberias and the environs, and we will show the local businesses that they are going to lose a lot of money for their chilul shabbos..

This might work, if they can keep it up and get the traveling/vacationing Haredim to participate. However, it can only work with shops such as supermarkets, kiosks, gift shops and other such stores. With restaurants, which seems to be the focus of Kubi's efforts, most of the relevant restaurants, with perhaps a few exceptions, would not be patronized anyway by the Haredi community. First of all, there are not that many mehadrin restaurants in Tiberias. Second, almost all the restaurants switching over to be open on Shabbos would not be mehadrin, so the Haredi community would not patronize those places regardless. Third, if they are mechalel shabbos and stay open, they will lose the hechsher entirely, even with just a Rabbanut hechsher, and, again, would anyway not be patronized by the boycotters from the Haredi community.

If it is even possible for this to work to encourage shops to remain closed on Shabbos, they are going to have to be rock solid as a cohesive group united in their efforts.

The latest in Tiberias is the recent increase in activity of Haredi women, affiliated with the Eida, who stand near the Lishkat Giyus - the IDF Draft offices - and try to persuade women about to be drafted to refuse the draft and they tell them how they can get out of it. This is done in a number of places, but it seems to be relatively new in Tiberias.

The mayor, Ron Kubi, went today and got into an argument with this pair of women, telling them they should leave and what they are doing is illegal, and whatnot. They took out a letter from a lawyer claiming it to be legal, but Kubi kept bothering them insisting they leave and that he would do whatever he can to prevent them from doing this.
source: Actualic (with video)

I don't know what is legal and what is not on this issue. If what they are doing is legal, Kubi can't do anything but make it uncomfortable for them. If it is illegal, the police should remove them. Even if it is legal, if they are bothering the women trying to go in, the women should, or could if they want to, file a complaint about being harassed outside the draft office. If what they are doing is legal, there is not really anything else he can do about it. The public sidewalk is a public sidewalk and they can stand there and give out flyers and talk to people just like anyone else can - as long as they don't break any relevant laws in the process.

this is funny.. they are both sharp and witty and make for a fun debate/argument..