First up, before I even get into tachlis, I'm sure there are a bunch of people who read the title of this post and thought, "Why aren't you voting for Eli Cohen?" For the edification of you newcomers to Israeli municipal elections, you have two votes: one is a yellow slip for mayor (Eli Cohen vs Moshe Abutbul), and one is a white slip where you vote for a party list. Unfortunately we still don't have any directly elected ward councillors; you vote for a party and the seats on city council are divvied up according to our rather complex system of proportional representation. So yes, it's a complete no-brainer to vote Eli Cohen for mayor, and I'm not even going to address that angle. Rather, I'm going to tell you why I'm voting Likud (מחל) for city council.
When I joined Likud, I did so for a national agenda, in order to support Moshe Feiglin. Incidentally, thanks to the efforts of thousands of others like me, Moshe is now a member of Knesset, and doing way better than I ever expected, and the Likud of today is not the spineless Likud that bowed to Ariel Sharon's disastrous disengagement. But that's beside the point. My point is, that I never saw the Likud as being that important on a local government level; I thought it much more useful to have representatives on council whom I could trust, who were my neighbors and who would look out for me and my community's interests. And who were all the Likud representatives on council, anyway? Predominantly traditional Moroccans from Old Beit Shemesh, with not a heckuva lot in common with me, culturally speaking. So in the past municipal elections I gave my vote to Anglo parties, so that there would at least be someone on the council representing my culture and values.
This year, however, my perspective has completely changed. Since becoming a member of the local Likud branch council, I've come to know a lot of these old-time Likudnikim. To be sure, there's still a big cultural gap between us, e.g. I do often need to ask them kindly not to smoke while we're having our meetings. But the fact is, they are sincerely and completely dedicated to serving the greater community of Beit Shemesh. Take a look at this Facebook page for a list of the Likud's achievements over the past 5 years. And then consider that during that time, the Likud was in the Opposition. That means it wasn't even their job to be working on these things - but they did it anyway. And if you ask them why they did all this stuff if they weren't in the coalition, they will look at you as if you just suggested eating falafel with a knife and fork. That's just what you do for your city!
And it's not for the glory, either. Everything they did over the past 5 years was done on the quiet. When Likud Knesset candidate Keti Shitrit mentioned to a group of us Likud Anglos a couple of days ago that the budget for the expansion of Road 38 was secured by Shalom Edri (the local Likud chairman), we expressed surprise, seeing as Mayor Abutbul has claimed that as one of his achievements. "Mah pitom! We have a letter from [Minister of Transportation] Yisrael Katz to prove that it was Shalom who convinced him to spare Road 38 from the budget cuts!" But they never publicized it before. They never thought to - because they didn't do it for the publicity. So we Anglos took that letter and gave it the exposure it deserves.
OK, so all I've proved so far is that the Likudnikim are really good people who do a lot of work for the community. But still, why vote for them when there are so many other really good people running for council - Anglos, people like us?
I agree that many of the other party lists are filled to the brim with amazing people, some of whom are good personal friends of mine. I wish them every success, I hope they make it to council, and I am convinced that they will serve the community to the very best of their ability.
But the key phrase here is: to the very best of their ability. If you peruse the Likud's list of achievements, you will notice that the majority of them were achieved because they had the ear of the relevant minister in the national government. If you have a problem, and you call your friendly local councillor Shmerel from the Anglos Like Me Party, he will certainly listen and do his level best to help out. He will bang on whatever doors he can in the municipality and try to escalate your issue to anyone who can help out. But if your problem is, for example, that the road outside your house resembles a moonscape, and the mayor is crying about budget cuts beyond his control, then who does councillor Shmerel call? He doesn't have the cellphone number of the Minister of Transportation - and even if he did, the Minister wouldn't recognize the caller ID and would let it go to voicemail. Your call is very important, please leave a message, along with the 327 other people who left me messages in the past 24 hours. Oh well, I did my hishtadlus...
When Shalom Edri or Moshe Shitrit picks up the phone to any given Likud minister, they answer within three rings. That's why we have Road 10 today, that's why Route 38 is going to be expanded, and that's why the Orot Girls' School held strong against the extremists and their appeasers. And why do the ministers care about some activist in some little backwater town? Because Beit Shemesh is traditionally a Likud stronghold, and the ministers know they have to keep their support base happy. The stronger the Likud representation is in Beit Shemesh, the greater our importance in the eyes of the Likud-led national government.
I won't say that voting Likud will give you a warm fuzzy feeling - but it's the smart vote if you're looking out for the overall good of Beit Shemesh.
So, that's why I'm voting מחל - Likud on October 22. I hope you'll consider it, too.
When I joined Likud, I did so for a national agenda, in order to support Moshe Feiglin. Incidentally, thanks to the efforts of thousands of others like me, Moshe is now a member of Knesset, and doing way better than I ever expected, and the Likud of today is not the spineless Likud that bowed to Ariel Sharon's disastrous disengagement. But that's beside the point. My point is, that I never saw the Likud as being that important on a local government level; I thought it much more useful to have representatives on council whom I could trust, who were my neighbors and who would look out for me and my community's interests. And who were all the Likud representatives on council, anyway? Predominantly traditional Moroccans from Old Beit Shemesh, with not a heckuva lot in common with me, culturally speaking. So in the past municipal elections I gave my vote to Anglo parties, so that there would at least be someone on the council representing my culture and values.
This year, however, my perspective has completely changed. Since becoming a member of the local Likud branch council, I've come to know a lot of these old-time Likudnikim. To be sure, there's still a big cultural gap between us, e.g. I do often need to ask them kindly not to smoke while we're having our meetings. But the fact is, they are sincerely and completely dedicated to serving the greater community of Beit Shemesh. Take a look at this Facebook page for a list of the Likud's achievements over the past 5 years. And then consider that during that time, the Likud was in the Opposition. That means it wasn't even their job to be working on these things - but they did it anyway. And if you ask them why they did all this stuff if they weren't in the coalition, they will look at you as if you just suggested eating falafel with a knife and fork. That's just what you do for your city!
And it's not for the glory, either. Everything they did over the past 5 years was done on the quiet. When Likud Knesset candidate Keti Shitrit mentioned to a group of us Likud Anglos a couple of days ago that the budget for the expansion of Road 38 was secured by Shalom Edri (the local Likud chairman), we expressed surprise, seeing as Mayor Abutbul has claimed that as one of his achievements. "Mah pitom! We have a letter from [Minister of Transportation] Yisrael Katz to prove that it was Shalom who convinced him to spare Road 38 from the budget cuts!" But they never publicized it before. They never thought to - because they didn't do it for the publicity. So we Anglos took that letter and gave it the exposure it deserves.
OK, so all I've proved so far is that the Likudnikim are really good people who do a lot of work for the community. But still, why vote for them when there are so many other really good people running for council - Anglos, people like us?
I agree that many of the other party lists are filled to the brim with amazing people, some of whom are good personal friends of mine. I wish them every success, I hope they make it to council, and I am convinced that they will serve the community to the very best of their ability.
But the key phrase here is: to the very best of their ability. If you peruse the Likud's list of achievements, you will notice that the majority of them were achieved because they had the ear of the relevant minister in the national government. If you have a problem, and you call your friendly local councillor Shmerel from the Anglos Like Me Party, he will certainly listen and do his level best to help out. He will bang on whatever doors he can in the municipality and try to escalate your issue to anyone who can help out. But if your problem is, for example, that the road outside your house resembles a moonscape, and the mayor is crying about budget cuts beyond his control, then who does councillor Shmerel call? He doesn't have the cellphone number of the Minister of Transportation - and even if he did, the Minister wouldn't recognize the caller ID and would let it go to voicemail. Your call is very important, please leave a message, along with the 327 other people who left me messages in the past 24 hours. Oh well, I did my hishtadlus...
When Shalom Edri or Moshe Shitrit picks up the phone to any given Likud minister, they answer within three rings. That's why we have Road 10 today, that's why Route 38 is going to be expanded, and that's why the Orot Girls' School held strong against the extremists and their appeasers. And why do the ministers care about some activist in some little backwater town? Because Beit Shemesh is traditionally a Likud stronghold, and the ministers know they have to keep their support base happy. The stronger the Likud representation is in Beit Shemesh, the greater our importance in the eyes of the Likud-led national government.
I won't say that voting Likud will give you a warm fuzzy feeling - but it's the smart vote if you're looking out for the overall good of Beit Shemesh.
So, that's why I'm voting מחל - Likud on October 22. I hope you'll consider it, too.
2 comments:
Good post, I would like to see and anglo on their number 4 spot, if the anglos are worth 3000 potential votes here and they want out support we should have one of us in the gov.
Besides we have many GREAT American ideas that they need.
We would be doing them a favor as well.
Very well written
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