To the surprise of many, the head of Bayit Yehudi in Beit Shemesh, Jack Edri, announced on Thursday, 25 Menachem Av 5773 that the party will be backing Eli Cohen in the fall mayoral race. Bayit Yehudi will be working hard to unseat the chareidi incumbent, Shas’ Moshe Abutbul. Most believed that the natural choice for the dati leumi party would have been Aliza Bloch, who recently announced her candidacy, but it appears the party believes it stands a better chance of unseating Abutbul with Cohen.
What is even more surprising is that the party’s leader, Minister Naftali Bennett already came out publically in support of Bloch but it appears the party’s local faction sees things differently than the national leaders. Bennett made his announcement at a press conference, leading everyone to believe that Bloch’s candidacy was backed by the party and it was a sure thing. Bennett even brought Yesh Atid on board after Minister Yair Lapid agreed to go with Bloch as well.
Backing Edri was the other local leaders of the dati leumi party, only adding to Bennett’s embarrassment as the local branch decided to act independently in the mayoral race, apparently with asking or informing Bennett.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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4 Responses
Good. Let them split the vote.
Hopefully, they can get thir act together and one or the other will withdraw. Abutbul has been a failure as mayor, and has to be replaced ASAP.
an Israeli Yid
Abutbul has been a good mayor. In any event, his reelection is extremely likely — even if he only has one opponent. Aside from the fact that his voting base has a higher turnout rate, his voting base (Traditional Sefardim + Sefardi Chareidim + Ashkenazi Chareidim) constitute a majority of the population.
I live in Ramat Beit Shemesh and I can personally vouch for Mayor Abutbul. He is a very strong supporter to build a new HOSPITAL hear in Beit Shemesh and has even alocated 120 dunamk for its future use. Did you not see all of the brand new parks for our kids-all his doing!!!! He is a mensh and a ben torah. He is a ohev of ALL jews. This Cohen gut is anti-religious especially towards charedim. He is being backed by Bennet a sworn enemy of the religious jew. How can a religious person support this vicious religious hater????