The polls show the mayoral race in Beit Shemesh, between the incumbent from the chareidi community, Mayor Moshe Abutbul, and the dati leumi challenger, Dr. Aliza Bloch, is neck and neck, Yediot Achronot reports on Tuesday, 23 Tishrei.
Last week, the candidates had to submit their lists ahead of the deadline and clearly, Aliza Bloch poses a threat to Abutbul, armed with support of both the Likud and Bayit Yehudi parties. Bloch is the Bayit Yehudi’s candidate and enjoys the backing of Likud too while Abutbul appears on the Degel Hatorah list, backed by the chareidi tzibur.
Abutbul is now looking at the Shlomei Emunim faction of Agudas Yisrael, realizing it may decide to take revenge against Degel Hatorah and Shas as they did not back its candidate in the Jerusalem mayoral race, Yossi Deutsch. If Shlomei Emunim wants to use the Beit Shemesh race to take revenge, it might back the Peleg Yerushalmi candidate, Rav Malachi Kitov, 34, instead of Abutbul. Such a reality could result in Bloch becoming the city’s next mayor.
Yediot reports there are 109,800 residents in Beit Shemesh, of which 64,163 are registered voters. This represents a 22.3% increase in population since 2012.
Written and published on Isru Chag Simchas Torah in Eretz Yisrael.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
If Shlomei Emunim wants to use the Beit Shemesh race to take revenge and does not back the charedi candidate Rav Abutbul against a woman mizrachi challenger, it will prove to the world that all Shlomei Emunim is concerned with is the kovod of Porush Inc. not the charedi tzibbur at large.
Except the “Dati Leumi” candidate actually wants the entire Beit Shemesh (did you know it’s not just Ramat BS?!) to improve, regardless of religious affiliation. The city needs to be cleaned up- figuratively and very much so- literally! It’s a mess and going through Bet makes me ill. Violence and graffiti etc etc
Aliza Bloch will beH bring about a positive change for the WHOLE BS. We can not have more of Abutbul who does nothing about the violence, terror, cleanliness etc. Why would anyone want more of him when he has done nothing positive for our city?
“… take revenge”? That’s the criteria by how the frum parties operate?
Please note an error in the above article: Aliza Bloch is NOT the Bayit Yehudi’s candidate, although she has their support. Aliza is running as an independent, for a party she calls Ir Meuhedet – a Unified City. It is also irrelevant, and thereby misleading, to describe Dr. Bloch as “the Dati Leumi candidate”. The fact that she personally is DL is no more relevant to the Mayoral race than the fact that she has brown eyes. Neither one of those personal facts make up her electoral platform. She is the candidate with the vision, the plan and the managerial experience to make Bet Shemesh the Center of the country in every way. not just geographically. Feel free to describe her as such in future articles!
The opening sentence of your article is misleading because Mrs. Bloch is not the dati leumi challenger. She is a challenger to the incumbent and she wants to represent Charedi interests. Her whole campaign is one of achdus. People are fed up with the fights. All we want is good education for our children and city services. Beitar and Elad are clean cities. Our city deserves to be clean too. Mrs. Bloch wants to clean up Beit Shemesh literally and bring more classrooms for the cheders and the bais yaakovs. Our newest neighborhood (Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel) has so many infrastructure problems. And we didn’t even get a mikve here for 3 years!!! Mrs. Bloch wouldn’t let that happen. She wants a chance to make sure every neighborhood is taken care of professionally. The other mistake in your article is that she is the Bayit Yehudy’s candidate. She is not!!! She is running independently to be everyone’s Mayor. I think people are trying to trick us because she isn’t from the Chareidi community, but she is trying so hard to bring people together. We need Achdus and this Eshes Chayil wants to bring it to Beit Shemesh with professional management. I say let’s give her a chance to make our lives better than they are now.
I’m not the type to write comments to articles, but I live in Beit Shemesh and I met Mrs. Bloch and this election is really different from the last one. It’s not about the secular/ dati voters vs the charedi voters. We are also fed up with the deteriorating situation. We need a good Mayor to run this city.
The opening sentence of your article is misleading because Mrs. Bloch is not the dati leumi challenger. She is a challenger to the incumbent and she wants to represent Charedi interests and have a Charedi coalition, including her deputy mayor (which she announced publicly already). Her whole campaign is one of ACHDUS. People are fed up with the fights. All we want is good education for our children and city services. Beitar and Elad are clean cities. Our city deserves to be clean too. Mrs. Bloch wants to clean up Beit Shemesh literally and bring more classrooms for the cheders and the bais yaakovs. Our newest neighborhood (Ramat Beit Shemesh Gimmel) has so many infrastructure problems. And we didn’t even get a mikve here for 3 years!!! Mrs. Bloch wouldn’t let that happen. She wants a chance to make sure every neighborhood is taken care of professionally. The other mistake in your article is that she is the Bayit Yehudy’s candidate. Not true. She is running independently to be everyone’s Mayor. I think people are trying to trick us because she isn’t from the Chareidi community, but she is trying so hard to bring people together. We need Achdus and this Eshes Chayil wants to bring it to Beit Shemesh with professional management. I say let’s give her a chance to make our lives better than they are now.