PM backing both Likud and rival in J’lem mayoral spat
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tried to have his cake and eat it, too, when he invited both Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin and the heads of the Likud list in the October 30 municipal elections, to the party’s gathering for municipal candidates at Ramat Gan’s Kfar Hamaccabiah Hotel on Monday.
Netanyahu promised the support of the Likud to municipal candidates. In a conversation at the event with the Likud’s top candidate for the Jerusalem city council, attorney Elisha Peleg, the prime minister said he would back the Likud’s city council candidates.
But Peleg told Netanyahu that he made that task more difficult with his endorsement of Elkin, who is running on former mayor Nir Barkat’s Jerusalem Will Succeed list after rejecting an opportunity to run with the Likud.
In an interview at a Jerusalem café ahead of Netanyahu’s event, Peleg told The Jerusalem Post that municipal races are a bellwether for the next general election, just like mid-term legislative elections are in the United States.
“The prime minister knows local elections are a test for our power in national elections,” Peleg said. “Only a strong Likud in the Jerusalem city council can change national priorities in Israel and bring budgets the city needs. We have connections with ministers that can help fund key projects in the city. We want Likudniks in Jerusalem, who are the majority in the city, to vote for the real Likud.”
Peleg lashed out at Elkin, who he said broke the party’s bylaws by running against a Likud list. He said there is a procedure for removing him from the Likud, but he decided not to take that step out of
respect for him.
“Elkin is harming and weakening Likud in Jerusalem by splitting our votes and not coordinating with the Likud branch,” Peleg said. “It’s unacceptable that a minister and MK of Likud, who gets his salary as a representative of Likud, makes his own rules and runs without authorization of the party. In English, that’s called anarchy and total chaos.”
The dispute with Elkin was both ideological and over city council candidates. Elkin backs cutting off from the Jerusalem municipality all Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem that are located beyond the security barrier erected in 2004; Peleg said the Likud opposes relinquishing neighborhoods and dividing Jerusalem.
The Likud chose a list of only male city council candidates before Elkin decided to run. Peleg said Elkin would have demoted the candidates chosen to the fourth slot and beyond on the list.
“He tried to bully us and take over the Likud list,” Peleg said. “I won the support of 82% of branch council members. He can’t come from out of nowhere and dictate.”
Peleg, 65, also bashed Barkat, who he said “saw Jerusalem as a launching pad to national politics” and consequently focused on advancing himself instead of the city.
“The mayor is the head of municipal services to the residents of the city, its highest clerk, not a sheriff,” he said. “Barkat left behind scorched earth. The city is in its worst state ever. Only if Likud gets enough power can residents return to be able to say they are proud to be Jerusalemites.”
While the Likud officially had no seats on the outgoing city council, there were Likud members on five different lists. In the 2015 Knesset elections, the party received 61,500 votes from Jerusalemites who are potential voters
for its council candidates.
Peleg’s priorities include housing, education, employment, cleanliness, transportation, stopping emigration from the city and improving its economy. He said an equal investment must be made in Jewish and Arab neighborhoods.
To accomplish those goals, Peleg cited his long track record as an IDF lieutenant colonel who fought and was injured in the 1973 Yom Kippur War; a partner in President Reuven Rivlin’s law firm; Prime Minister Menachem Begin’s spokesman when he won the 1977 election; and 30 years in Jerusalem politics.
“When I was in charge of the city’s cleanliness when Teddy Kollek was mayor, the city was so clean it sparkled,” Peleg boasted. “I have the most experience of any council candidate. I never got a salary from the city, only headaches and suffering. But I am running because I have the ability to contribute my skills and experience to return the Likud to its good old days.” •