Municipal elections are less than a week away. For me, they can't be over soon enough.
There have not been, to the best of my knowledge, any truly scientific polls to indicate who will be crowned the Mayor of Beit Shemesh come next Wednesday. All we know is, it's close. And we know one other thing: whoever wins Tuesday's election, around half of the city will be jubilant and throwing street parties, and the other half utterly dejected, bitter and resentful.
The thing that has characterized this election campaign the most has been the polarization, the rift in our community, the anger, the hatred, even violence. From both sides. And I say that not just to seem even-handed - I've seen and heard people arguing for and against both Eli Cohen and Moshe Abutbul, with fury and venom like I have never seen in them before. Laws of loshon hora, rechilus, motzi shem ra, nezikin - even Shemiras Shabbos - out the window! And there is almost nobody in the "undecided" category. I've never seen anything like this before: nearly everyone I know is vociferously and unswervingly committed to their candidate. I have not yet had a conversation with anyone who was wavering between the two! I've witnessed way too many heated exchanges between the two camps, and not one case of anyone changing their mind. Perhaps the undecideds are afraid to let themselves be known, lest they be set upon by one or the other faction... but I don't know, because they're not saying, and I don't even know if they exist.
This schism in our town truly breaks my heart. In the end, we're all going to carry on with our lives, and we're going to have to live with our friends and neighbors who voted for the other guy.
Casting my mind back 5 years ago to the previous election, it wasn't like this. Sure, there was plenty of electoral tension, but it wasn't about Haredim versus Everybody Else. Moshe Abutbul had plenty backing from secular and traditional parties and communities, which is why he won the election. And Shalom Lerner was backed by the faction of UTJ that is now the "Koach" party. When Abutbul won, sure Lerner's supporters were upset, but not so grievously that they contemplated moving out of the city.
What happened? How is it that in the space of 5 years, our city has fractured neatly down the line: Haredim (with the notable exception of the Tov party) are solidly behind Abutbul, while everyone else is voting Cohen? It's an important question to ask, because this in itself is probably the most burning issue concerning Beit Shemesh: the relationship between the various sectors of the population.
I was having a discussion recently with an Abutbul supporter, who was earnestly rattling off an impressive list of the achievements over the last 5 years, that benefited everyone, not just Haredim, and he was getting immensely frustrated that people just refused to see the truth of the situation. I guess he didn't learn Stephen Covey's 5th Habit: Seek to understand, then to be understood. Did you every ask yourself why, despite everything you've said, the city has split into two practically warring factions? If you're going to claim that the opening of a bowling alley (a private business initiative) is to the credit of the mayor, then you're also going to have to "credit" the mayor with bringing the relationships between Haredim and Everyone Else to the nadir they are at now: where anti-Cohen ads use Holocaust imagery (implicitly calling Cohen a Nazi), and non-Haredim are openly talking about leaving the city if Abutbul is re-elected.
He answered me: it's just fear. I wholeheartedly agree. And I think the same is true for the other side. The shrill tenor of this whole campaign is because both sides are driven by a wild, visceral fear that the other guy might win and destroy everything for "us" (whoever "we" might be). But it's not a full equivalence. The Haredi camp is afraid of Cohen, because he's unknown, is alleged to have connections with the Great Satan (Yair Lapid) and the Little Satan (Naftali Bennett), and he's threatening the benign reign of their patron Moshe Abutbul. The non-Haredi camp is afraid of Abutbul, because he's known, and whatever explanation you may proffer, they have seen him in action for the past 5 years, and they emphatically do not want a repeat performance. Do you really want to understand why every non-Haredi party, plus Tov, quit the coalition? Ask them! Do you really want to understand why almost every non-Haredi voter who voted Abutbul 5 years ago, is now dreading the prospect that he might be re-elected? Ask them!
I am certain that Moshe Abutbul is a very good man, and he is totally dedicated to doing the best he can. But whether intentionally or not, his tenure as mayor has been exceptionally divisive, and bred extremism and hatred between different sectors of the Jewish people. The results are undeniable: we are a city of two factions, not on speaking terms - and that is the greatest tragedy imaginable. The fact that this happened on his watch is a gross failure, an offence warranting dismissal. However much he may have done on paper, whatever endorsements he may bring, whoever tells me "Daas Torah", and however much of a good, sweet and kind person he may be, I cannot vote for Moshe Abutbul.
Many of my friends and neighbors have come to me gushing with effusive praise for Eli Cohen. He sounds like a good guy, though his marketing is appalling. I wish I could share their enthusiasm for him, but I don't. But I will give him my vote on Tuesday, because the only thing I am sure of is that Beit Shemesh needs a new mayor, just to give us some chance of healing.
Perhaps, like me, you are disillusioned and distressed by the tsunami of sin'as chinam that has engulfed our beautiful city, and know that it cannot be allowed to continue in this path - but for whatever reason you cannot bring yourself to vote for Eli Cohen. I can understand that. But then, please, don't actively lend a hand to deepening the rift in our society. Don't vote. Or vote with a "white slip". Make that your protest.
And even if you do vote for Abutbul, I still love you, and I'll still be your loyal friend and neighbor.
There have not been, to the best of my knowledge, any truly scientific polls to indicate who will be crowned the Mayor of Beit Shemesh come next Wednesday. All we know is, it's close. And we know one other thing: whoever wins Tuesday's election, around half of the city will be jubilant and throwing street parties, and the other half utterly dejected, bitter and resentful.
This schism in our town truly breaks my heart. In the end, we're all going to carry on with our lives, and we're going to have to live with our friends and neighbors who voted for the other guy.
What happened? How is it that in the space of 5 years, our city has fractured neatly down the line: Haredim (with the notable exception of the Tov party) are solidly behind Abutbul, while everyone else is voting Cohen? It's an important question to ask, because this in itself is probably the most burning issue concerning Beit Shemesh: the relationship between the various sectors of the population.
I was having a discussion recently with an Abutbul supporter, who was earnestly rattling off an impressive list of the achievements over the last 5 years, that benefited everyone, not just Haredim, and he was getting immensely frustrated that people just refused to see the truth of the situation. I guess he didn't learn Stephen Covey's 5th Habit: Seek to understand, then to be understood. Did you every ask yourself why, despite everything you've said, the city has split into two practically warring factions? If you're going to claim that the opening of a bowling alley (a private business initiative) is to the credit of the mayor, then you're also going to have to "credit" the mayor with bringing the relationships between Haredim and Everyone Else to the nadir they are at now: where anti-Cohen ads use Holocaust imagery (implicitly calling Cohen a Nazi), and non-Haredim are openly talking about leaving the city if Abutbul is re-elected.
I am certain that Moshe Abutbul is a very good man, and he is totally dedicated to doing the best he can. But whether intentionally or not, his tenure as mayor has been exceptionally divisive, and bred extremism and hatred between different sectors of the Jewish people. The results are undeniable: we are a city of two factions, not on speaking terms - and that is the greatest tragedy imaginable. The fact that this happened on his watch is a gross failure, an offence warranting dismissal. However much he may have done on paper, whatever endorsements he may bring, whoever tells me "Daas Torah", and however much of a good, sweet and kind person he may be, I cannot vote for Moshe Abutbul.
Many of my friends and neighbors have come to me gushing with effusive praise for Eli Cohen. He sounds like a good guy, though his marketing is appalling. I wish I could share their enthusiasm for him, but I don't. But I will give him my vote on Tuesday, because the only thing I am sure of is that Beit Shemesh needs a new mayor, just to give us some chance of healing.
Perhaps, like me, you are disillusioned and distressed by the tsunami of sin'as chinam that has engulfed our beautiful city, and know that it cannot be allowed to continue in this path - but for whatever reason you cannot bring yourself to vote for Eli Cohen. I can understand that. But then, please, don't actively lend a hand to deepening the rift in our society. Don't vote. Or vote with a "white slip". Make that your protest.
And even if you do vote for Abutbul, I still love you, and I'll still be your loyal friend and neighbor.
4 comments:
What kind of person connects Jews with 'Hitler' because of the way they talk? Because you think they are wrong?
I deleted the previous comment. I'm happy for civil debate to happen in the comments here, but that one crossed the line.
Hi Shaul,
It is now post election and I have been wading through some of the blatantly one sided pre and post electral commentary. To you I wish to lend a different angle that will hopefully bring some balance to the debate.
People seem quick to forget what it was that Moshe Abutbul inherited. Do you remember who the previous mayor was and what he achieved? Sometimes the commentary does make oblique reference to that man but effectively goes on to bury deep in the vicious diatribe against Abutbul. The man in question ran this city in the manner of some Sicilian godfather whose clear aim it was to ghettoize the Chareidim. During his tenure of a decade and a half very, very little was acheived. In fact I would venture to say that at least as much has been acheived by the Abutbul administration in its first term as the former mayor did during his entire tenure.
So, in the pursuit of fairness, one cannot deny Abutbul was faced with the daunting task of re-setting a grossly biased and mismanaged city hall. The numbers speak for themselves. I understand that the city coffers were some 3M shekels in the red. The last 5 years have seen that reduced to 500k.
People talk about dirt in the streets but they forget (or they are recent residents who simply don't know) the garbage strikes we had periodically under Vaknin.
I can still recall a couple of Shabbosim having to endure the nausiating stench on the way to shul. When a biyuv would burst the slime would bubble out of manholes for days before being attended to. People have very short memories or is it perhaps that they really have an unstated agenda?
Regarding the Orot fiasco, again an outgrowth of Vaknin's divide and conquer policy, I recall a published statement by Abutbul that he condemns the alleged behaviour of the extemists and the related violence. What did the public want - that he don a police uniform? Much is levelled against this man even though he has sought to engender peace between the groups in question. Indeed, honestly now, when was the last garbage burning incident on Hayarden?
It is my firm belief that the Israeli public has arrived at the sobering reality that the very democracy that they strive so hard to duplicate is that demi god of the enlightenment that is about to be their undoing.
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