VZCZCXRO0233
PP RUEHROV
DE RUEHTV #2534/01 3181715
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 131715Z NOV 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9142
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 002534 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV KDEM PINR IS
SUBJECT: MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS: WHERE THE CANDIDATE IS KING 
 
REF: A. TEL AVIV 2505 
     ¶B. JERUSALEM 2013 
 
¶1. Summary:  Israeli voters went to the polls November 11 to 
choose their mayors and municipal councils.  Incumbent Ron 
Huldai won re-election in Tel Aviv, while secular candidate 
Nir Barkat (formerly affiliated with Kadima) defeated 
ultra-Orthodox (Haredi) candidate Meir Porush (UTJ) in 
Jerusalem (reftels).  Two female mayors in Israel, Miriam 
Feierberg (Likud) in Netanya and Yael German (Meretz) in 
Herzliya, were re-elected.  Results for individual council 
seats have not yet been released in Ra'anana, where women 
candidates could form the majority of a municipal council for 
the first time in the history of Israel.  Arab participation 
(except for Jerusalem) was remarkably high, with Israel Radio 
reporting an 80 percent turnout, compared to 40 percent for 
the general population -- down from 49.5 percent in 2003 and 
the lowest overall turnout ever registered.  Kadima claimed 
it has become the largest faction in local government by 
winning 50 mayoral races (out of 260) and increasing council 
seats across the country, but the Kadima Council President 
was unseated in Rishon-Letzion and the party's total number 
of mayors is down from the nearly 80 mayors who joined Kadima 
shortly after former PM Sharon founded the party in 2005. 
Likud and Labor did not invest heavily in these elections, 
and only a dozen or so mayors allied to each of these parties 
won.  Shas won four municipalities where the ultra-Orthodox 
(Haredi) population is significant, but its nationwide reach 
was limited.  Yisrael Beiteinu claims that the elections 
broadened its national base, and, like Kadima, hopes to use 
the political apparatus deployed in the municipal elections 
to get out the vote in general elections on February 10.  End 
Summary. 
 
------------ 
TURNOUT DOWN 
------------ 
 
¶2. Even with a younger threshold for voting in these 
municipal elections, overall participation decreased to just 
40 percent of voters (who are eligible if they are 17 or 
older).  This figure was down from 49.5 percent in 2003, and 
the lowest ever according to Ma'ariv newspaper. 
Consequently, some results were less revealing than they 
might first appear.  For example, Miriam Feierberg (Likud) 
won re-election in the coastal city of Netanya with a 
resounding 81 percent of the vote.  However, as only seven 
percent of the electorate voted in Netanya, Feierberg 
received the support of only one in twenty eligible voters. 
A Jerusalem Post analysis blamed the low turnout on three 
reasons: (1) Israel, a small country both in population and 
geography, has many pressing national issues that leave 
little energy for voters to focus on local issues; (2) a 
world-wide trend of decreasing participation in the political 
process at all levels; and (3) as detailed in Ref A, local 
authorities in Israel do not have a great deal of power or 
revenues to work with, and thus "the significance of local 
elections is not as great as local politicians would like to 
make it sound."  This disinterest was shared by the media, as 
the Jerusalem Post, like Ha'aretz, did not carry a section on 
their website devoted to the Israeli municipal elections. 
 
------------------------------------------- 
TEL AVIV STATUS QUO, SHAKE-UPS IN THE SOUTH 
------------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. Incumbent Ron Huldai, who has been associated with the 
Labor Party but now heads an independent list, won 
re-election in Tel Aviv, defeating challenger Dov Khenin, an 
MK with the Hadash party (formerly "communist" but now a 
mixed Jewish-Arab party on the far left), who headed an 
independent slate that garnered an equal number of Council 
seats.  The two longest-serving mayors in Israel fell, as Zvi 
Tzilker lost to Yehiel Lasri (Likud) after 33 years as mayor 
of Ashdod, while Meir Nitzan (Kadima) lost to Dov Tzur after 
25 years as mayor of Rishon Letzion.  Nitzan is the President 
of the Kadima Party Council and has announced his retirement 
from politics.  Rubik Danilovitz easily defeated the 
Kadima-aligned incumbent, Yaakov Turner, in Beersheva, while 
former mayor David Buskila returned to office in Sderot, 
besting the wife of former Labor Party leader Amir Peretz. 
Yona Yahav (Kadima, formerly Labor) beat off challenger 
Yaacov Borovsky to win re-election as mayor of Haifa.  Ramez 
Jaraisy was re-elected in Nazareth, the largest Arab city in 
Israel.  Jaraisy defeated a list that included members of the 
Islamic Movement, which lost its majority on the Nazareth 
council to Jaraisy's secular Hadash party -- even though 
Nazareth's population is approximately 70 percent Muslim.  In 
Rehovot, Rahat (the largest Bedouin city in Israel) and a few 
smaller cities, no mayoral candidate received the minimum 
threshold of 40 percent of the vote, which means that a 
run-off election will be held in two weeks between the top 
two vote-getters.  Council seats are divided proportionally 
 
TEL AVIV 00002534  002 OF 003 
 
 
according to the percentage of votes each party/group list 
receives. 
 
------------ 
WOMEN MAYORS 
------------ 
 
¶4. The glass ceiling in Israeli politics remains strong, as 
only 3 of 25 cabinet members and 18 of 120 Knesset members 
are women.  The only two confirmed winners among the 32 women 
mayoral candidates were incumbents Miriam Feierberg (Likud) 
in Netanya and Yael German (Meretz) in Herzliya.  Flora 
Shushan -- sister of former Labor Party leader Amir Peretz -- 
appeared to be leading the mayoral race in Mitzpeh Ramon, 
where she has served as Acting Mayor, but the vote will be 
decided by the absentee ballots of the military, which have 
yet to be counted.  If Shushan wins, she will become only the 
11th elected, female mayor in the history of Israel.  Results 
for individual council seats have not yet been released, but 
if women gain a majority on the Ra'anana municipal council 
(women held 10 of 20 seats going into the election) it will 
be the first time women have controlled a majority of any 
municipal council in Israel.  Early reports indicate that 
Arab voters in Israel turned out in much higher numbers than 
the general population: 80 percent according to Israel Radio, 
compared to 40 percent among the general population.  Only 
the official tallies, which will be published in 20 days, 
will reveal the precise participation statistics and final 
results, but the overall trend has been decreasing 
participation in both local and national elections. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
POSTSCRIPT ON LOCAL POLS AND PARTY TIES 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶5. The national party ties of many candidates are tenuous, 
and local issues dominated most races.  Tel Aviv mayor Huldai 
is identified as a member of the Labor Party, but like most 
Israeli mayors he is known and elected for his personality 
and personal policies, not his national party affiliation. 
Haifa mayor Yahav is nominally Kadima, but ran under the "Our 
Haifa" banner.  Conversely, some local parties with 
independent-sounding names are in fact affiliated with one of 
the national parties.  Netanya mayor Feierberg, for example, 
appeared on the ballot under "One Netanya" but is a member of 
and supported by the Likud Party, albeit less strongly tied 
to her national party than local Democratic and Republican 
politicians tend to be in the United States.  Moreover, many 
mayors shop around to see where they can get the most of what 
they want from the national government.  Ha'aretz reported a 
slight increase in female council members, and attributed the 
gains to the growth of independent lists, saying they offered 
more opportunities for women than "Labor and Likud's practice 
of choosing army veterans as candidates." 
 
¶6. Nonetheless, Kadima -- with their goal of forming the next 
Government -- and the Green Party -- with their goal of 
entering the next Knesset -- invested heavily in the 
municipal elections in the hopes they would build momentum 
toward the national elections in February.  Major traditional 
power parties, Likud and Labor, meanwhile, invested little in 
these municipal elections in order to conserve scarce funds 
and concentrate strategy on the national elections.  Kadima 
claimed it has become the largest faction in local government 
by winning 50 mayoral races, with the media quoting Vice 
Premier Haim Ramon as saying their success "creates a future 
infrastructure -- it is significant" and municipal campaign 
head Yoel Hasson as claiming that Likud and Labor "have 
nearly been erased."  A Kadima contact assessed that even 
though Kadima came away from the elections with fewer mayors 
than it had hoped, the party strengthened its position with 
new seats in municipal councils across the country.  Likud 
and Labor only won a little more than a dozen mayoral races 
each. The Green Party nearly doubled its representation by 
winning 50 seats on municipal councils, bolstering the minor 
party's hopes of landing its first-ever Knesset seats in 
February's national elections. 
 
¶7.  Labor Party Secretary-General Etan Cabel announced that 
he was pleased with the results, saying Labor had 
strengthened the party "with a small budget" and brought 
about "a change in leadership in many cities."  According to 
Shas Party Chairman Eli Yishai, Shas won four mayoral races, 
and was "continuing the revolution it started with the local 
authorities, and will end in elections to Knesset."  (Yishai, 
however, admitted to a "stinging" loss for the Haredim in 
Jerusalem.)  Chairman Avigdor Lieberman claimed that Yisrael 
Beiteinu "doubled its power" and that "will lead to the party 
doubling its power in the general elections."  Likud was 
relatively silent on the significance of the municipal 
elections, and an aide to Party Chairman Netanyahu explained 
to poloff that the municipal elections were about "local 
issues, not national politics." 
 
TEL AVIV 00002534  003 OF 003 
 
 
 
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