OPINION

Wanted: Municipal Messiah

NECHEMIA MEYERS

Israel Correspondent

IV

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10/16
1998

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.

ith the approach of
municipal elections in
Israel, I keep asking
myself why anyone
would want to be mayor of Rehovot.
The city is burdened with an enor-
mous debt and, as a result, is chroni-
cally short of funds.
Some mayors are more successful
than other recent mayors of Rehovot,
bit all are limited in what they can
do by the strictures of Israeli law.
Unlike their American counterparts,
for example, they can't levy an array
of taxes. Municipal income in Israel
comes almost exclusively from prop-
erty taxes and whatever the mayors
can wheedle out of
the central govern-
ment.
Their influence
over education is also
strictly limited. For
while they provide the
school buildings, it is
the Ministry of Edu-
cation that decides on
what is to be taught
and who is to do the
teaching. Mayors
have even less to say
about the police, who
get their orders from
the Ministry of Inter-
nal Security. As a
result, most regard the mayoralty as a
stepping stone to the Knesset and,
hopefully, the Cabinet.
So while each new mayor comes
in promising everything in the book
= from more parks and gardens to
better schools and cleaner streets —
he soon finds that he won't be able
to achieve these desirable goals with-
out enormous infusions of money
from the Finance Ministry, money
that is not forthcoming.
There is no shortage of would-be
municipal messiahs this year. Indeed,
no less than six men and one woman
are seeking the mayoralty — some
representing national parties and oth-
ers running on behalf of local lists.
Their slogans promise the citizens
of Rehovot "a new beginning," "five
years of innovation, growth and
development," "strong leadership"
and a host of other goodies. But the
candidates tend to be short on
specifics, presumably because they
might antagonize one group of voters
or another.
The only exception is the candi-
date of left-leaning Meretz, who

promises to initiate public transport
on Shabbat, something sure to be
vigorously opposed by the Orthodox.
But they wouldn't vote for him any-
way.
The two Orthodox contenders,
meanwhile, are trying to win the
support of secular voters. This is
reflected not only in that their plat-
forms tend to downplay religious
issues, but also in their campaign
poster portraits. For while the men
were obviously wearing kippot when
they were photographed, the shots
were taken at an angle that ensure
the kippot couldn't be seen.
By law, posters can only be dis-
played on special billboards put up
for the elections, billboards on which
•space is allocated to each of the con=s_
tenders. But that law is often ignored
by candidates who
have their posters
stuck on every avail-
able tree trunk and
pasted over those of
their rivals.
When I recently
passed a campaign
q‘.,
billboard at 11 p.m., it
was completely cov-
ered with the posters
of candidate A. Then,
when I came by an
hour later, only the
posters of candidate B
were to be seen. Next
morning, both had
disappeared; it was candidate C whom
had conquered the billboard.
Yet neither the posters nor a
recent spate of parlor meetings have
aroused interest in the campaign,
partly because the best and brightest
citizens of Rehovot — these who
have made it a world-renowned cen-
ter of science and technology —
have refused to enter the political
arena.
It is not that the professors and
engineers are unaware of the need to
improve the running of a city where
the streets are full of potholes, rub-
bish is everywhere and schools are
shabby and overcrowded. But public
life has little attraction for them,
particularly since in Israel, as in the
United States, an officeholder can no
longer expect to have any privacy
whatsoever. His every foible, small or
large, is bound to be highlighted in
the sensation-hungry media.
So it is safer and mere satisfying
fcr the elite elements to stay
where they are, complaining all the
while about the state of affairs in
oar
Rehovot. ❑

Rehovot,
a typical
smaller
Israeli city,
needs real
help.

.

