Lion for new elections?
“All the heads of the haredi parties promised him three months ago that they would support Moshe Lion,” Deri continued.
“If we back track on this, and if the haredi community don’t unite around the candidacy of Moshe Lion, I'm telling you we’re going to lose the chance to dismantle this coalition in the next three years.”
Asked to explain further, Deri said the coalition could not be broken up with the Yisrael Beytenu chairman.
“Avigdor Lieberman is the central axis of this coalition. You cannot break up this coalition without Avigdor Lieberman. You cannot come to Avigdor Lieberman and tell him, sir, I'm sorry we’re taking you out, politically speaking, that we’re not supporting your candidate, Moshe Lion in Jerusalem, and afterwards request from him that he breaks up his alliance with Yair Lapid and Bennett.
“It won’t work, full stop. You can’t behave like this.”
Lion was hoping for full haredi support in Jerusalem but the hassidic Agudat Yisrael party has refused to endorse him, as has a rebel non-hassidic faction representing several thousand votes on the capital.
Shas and the mainstream non-hassidic haredi party Degel HaTorah have both pledged support for Lion.You will note that contrary to the JPost headline, Deri didn't really say that Liberman will undercut the coalition in exchange for support for Lion, but rather that Liberman won't undercut the coalition if the Haredim do not fulfill their commitment to support Lion.
Lion is trailing badly in the polls.
The Haredim are the largest voting bloc in Jerusalem.
The election is next Tuesday, October 22.
Strange things have happened at the last minute in Jerusalem politics. In 1993, Menachem Porush withdrew from the Mayoral race at the last minute, and the Haredim threw all their votes to Ehud Olmert, resulting in the defeat of longtime Mayor Teddy Kollek and the election of Olmert.
Labels: City of Jerusalem, Ehud K. Olmert, Israeli election polls, Nir Barkat
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:46 PM
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