Gold dust in my eyes ...

Nir Barkat won the Jerusalem mayoral race handily, garnering 51% of the vote to Meir Porush's 41%. While it wasn't the revolution as portrayed by the press, it was a welcome sign that the rule -- or at least the mayor's chair -- has returned to secular (non-haredi) hands. What was truly amazing is the voter turnout -- almost all Jews(the Arabs boycotted the election) -- was 42%. The Barkat campaign workd hard to bring out the secular vote and the haredi communities were split leaving some to not vote (their Rabbis told them nothing) and others like the Ger Hasidim to actually vote for Barkat!


Several days later (though not yet appearing on the City of Jerusalem website), the results of the council elections appeared: UTJ (Ashkenazi Haredi) garnered 8 seats, Barkat's group 6, Shas (Sfardi Haredi) 5, NRP and Meretz each 3, Hitarut Yerushalayim 2 and Likud, Israel Beitaynu, Piskat Ze'ev and L'mayan Yerushalayim all received one seat.

What does all this mean?

1. A non-haredi government/coalition is possible. Excluding UTJ and Shas the coalition would still have 18 seats (out of 31).
2. Should the NRP + another party refuse to join, Barkat will not have a ruling majority. Creating a majority will require enticing a religious party to join at the cost of 'paying their price'.

In the case of 2, I fear a repetition of the governance of the last 20 years (the tail-end of Kolleck until present). Any and all attempts by Barkat to revitalize the city--principally by making Jerusalem a more modern and open city--culturally, commercially will fail. The city will continue its free fall and remain an economically distressed area and the non-haredi populations will continue to flee the city.

He will also need to devise a way to make an end run around the council to achieve his goals.

While it was wonderful that Barkat was able to get out the vote for the election, I'm not sure people are willing to be actively involved as "change agents" for the entire (or even part) of the five year term of office.

Unless Barkat establishes a truly supportive city council coalition, it'll be SOS (same old s*****). It won't even be a reformation, never mind, a revolution.