I've finally got a new "story" for this page. This one goes straight
with my previous political experience and of course with the current neighborhood.
It all goes back to the 1992 June national elections. That was my
first political activity where I became deeply involved with Meretz and
the Meretz youth. It was then that I met Yael German who was then
an activist in Hertzlia.
Of course, from the very first minute she stroke me, as everyone with her
amazing character - her charisma, her will and ability to do and move things.
It was through her that I met and spoke with Knesset Member Dedi Zucker.
It should be noted for later use that her job on the elections day was
to place youth activists at stands around schools which had voting booths
inside.
I kept in touch with Yael - not too well, but she remembered whom I was
and of course I remembered her. In the 1993 municipal elections Yael
was a candidate as number 2 in the Meretz list in Hertzlia and was elected.
The mayor remained Eli Landau and Yael for these five years of office was
his main opposition (she was in fact the only active opposition to a mayor
that was charged with unlawful acts and plain actions that were bad for
the city even if legal).
All that brings me up to the current municipal elections. It was
over eight months ago that seven different candidates for mayor started
advertising themselves. Yael resolved herself with plenty of encouragement
to run for mayor. Her first problem arose from within. Before
being able to announce her candidacy, KM Dedi Zucker decided he wanted
to run for the same position and believed he had a right to do so without
elections within the party for the candidate. It was resolved with
the help of KM Amnon Rubinstein. A date for the elections was set,
but Zucker withdrew his candidacy. Once Yael was left as a sole candidate
of Meretz for mayor of Hertzlia she announced this candidacy. She
did so first to a group of Meretz activists mostly in the Meretz headquarters
in Hertzlia. I was there, with my friend Ayval. We stated our
complete support for Yael and hoped to start working on the campaign.
It took a few weeks before I actively started my work. I used an
opportunity that I met Yael in the street to see what activities are on
hand. She invited me to come on a coffee-house tour that night (a
Friday) and to a beach operation on Saturday morning. I came that
night and again on Saturday. Both were very successful. After
both I decided I will help as much as possible for this important cause.
I was contacted the next day by Alon Moskovitz who was active and had a
part of the headquarters. I immediately came to work and planned
a couple of small things with him. After a week of such activities,
that happened to be during a holiday, I contacted Yael again to see what
may I do afterwards. It was a Monday and the next day I was due in
the army. During the conversation Yael offered me a position on her
list to the city council, that was being created. I was very flattered
by the offer, which I mentioned, however declined due to my army service
(believing it is not possible).
It was a month before the elections (that took place on November 10th)
and believing I may have "something" in my future (Yael had already stated
that despite the army service - that is, after my army service, she'll
help me in my political future). I arrived ecstatic on the base,
where I told everyone I know what happened. I was advised by someone
to check the rules of being a candidate again (I knew it was possible to
be a candidate to the Knesset). I did that and to my surprise found
out it is possible to be a candidate to the city council and the army can't
do a thing about it. By the evening I was positive I will take that
course of action and called Yael. I apologized for changing my mind
like that, hoping there still is a position left (the previous day she
offered me a position that is unlikely to get in - I believe it was number
eight, but since in any case I wasn't due to get in the council, the exact
number didn't matter). With that in mind I gladly accepted number
19 that was left empty - the last left empty. The next morning I
was in the headquarters to sign the papers and return to the base to start
my way out temporarily.
It took the army three weeks to make me a civilian so I can do everything
officially, but I managed to do things in between. During my visits
to the headquarters and during my work I got a position - in charge of
youth activities (as I was the youngest candidate in Hertzlia to the city
council and one of the youngest in the country). Through my extensive
work I got to meet many people and I believe even make an influence.
Of course I got to work with today's Meretz Youths and always felt nostalgic
of years passed by... In the past few weeks before the elections
I worked closely with two representatives of the Meretz Youth - Oded and
Maya. With them and with many others I've spent long hours from morning
to early morning (often with less than 4 hours of sleep a night, a number
of times with as little as 2 hours). That resulted of course with
a car accident I had on my way back home two nights before the elections.
I was fortunate to get out unharmed (I hit a parked car so no one else
was able to get hurt). Of course I learned an important lesson...
I should note that a few weeks before the elections the final list was
read and it turned out I got to be number 14 and not 19. I still
do not know the reason but it has meaning for the future - which will come
at the end.
On elections day I was in charge of logistics. That mainly means
of posting youths around schools that have voting booths (the same position
Yael had 6 and a half years ago). Since the municipal elections do
not attract as many volunteers as national elections we were forced to
hire youths for these posts. I controlled such posts for 24 of 28
locations (the last four were left empty since we weren't able due to many
reasons to fill them with manpower and equipment. The four empty
positions were picked as those with least amount of voters) and it proved
difficult to do. I was fortunate to use our number 2 on the list,
Yonatan Yasur's car that day, as there was only one other car patrolling
(with Yael's son Guy and with Tammy - a youth volunteer). I was in
the car with Maya from the Meretz Youth. That made the car a mobile
office. My cell phone was always in use as we patrolled the schools
and even got to fire a couple of youths who were not doing well (they in
fact published another candidate).
Finally the polls closed at 10 pm and short thereafter a poll which was
made was published. I do not remember the results of that poll exactly,
but it showed we won. It should be now said first of that one of
the eight candidates quit early in the race. The whole campaign there
were two main candidates. One was the Labor candidate and the other
was the Likud candidate, Urieli. There was a third candidate who
was considered as going down and Yael was considered as a candidate that
start late and low (two and a half months before the elections we had three
percent support) and gotten better, but not that good. Moreover,
Yael is a representative of Meretz, which is not a center party and considered
by some as extremist (I disagree with such an analysis though). It
was a huge surprise that poll and even a shock. We gathered at the
headquarters where the place was already swarmed with reporters and tv
cameras. It took a couple of hours for the results to start coming
in. We were trying not to be too optimistic. We watched poll
by poll coming in with often results where Yael leads by much (over sixty
and seventy percent) and always the list for the council has an even higher
percent.
It was clear by 2 am that we have the lead. Eventually Yael won with
32 percent, where Urieli had 26 percent. Since Yael didn't pass the
40 percent, there was due a second round within two weeks between Yael
and Urieli. Another note about the lists: It turned out the
list got 37 percent (the second highest percent for a list of Meretz in
the country). In a later check I found out that the difference in
the number of votes between the votes for mayor for Yael and the votes
for lists for Meretz (there are two separate votes - one for mayor and
one for council) is the same as the amount of votes for mayor that were
said as bad and put aside.
I got a ride from Yael that night, well, morning - at 5 am. We knew
even before we got on the way that we have very difficult couple of weeks
coming up. The next day it was obvious. Urieli started the
dirtiest campaign. He posted signs saying that Yael is bad for Hertzlia,
Meretz is bad for Hertzlia etc. But that was the beginning.
It got to the point where he claimed Yael was a liar (straight as this)
and even giving a quote that never existed. I was back in the army
by then, but managed to come from time to time. I was there especially
on elections day of course and spent the previous night working without
a minute of sleep. I got to be in charge of the Labor headquarters
for the elections. We picked a nice room with a balcony, two phone
lines, etc. We cleaned the place up and used it as our headquarters
for the elections day, called the "Room." From there we were due
to control five to seven drivers and over a hundred people posted at all
28 schools.
In the morning Yael came to a tour in our headquarters. I showed
her the place, and then a tv crew came. It was Ilana Dayan who has
a news tv show called Uvda (a fact). Yael introduced me to her and
we spoke for a minute. Of course Yael stated that she expects a great
political future for me. We've had problems more than we imagined
was possible, but succeeded fixing them. Eventually I believe we
controlled everything better, however it didn't help the mood. Most
of the people I spoke with that day were positive we've lost. On
the news at 8 pm they said only 13 percent voted in Hertzlia. That
means we've lost since a low voting percentage plays against us.
It turned out in fact that after the news at 8 pm Urieli already partied.
I felt a little better after voting myself. There were plenty of
people and everyone talked about Yael.
We closed the place up at 10 pm and headed to the headquarters. It
was packed this time even more than before. I managed to make my
way to the score board. I stood next to Yariv Ben Eliezer (Ben Gurion's
grandson with whom I often worked throughout the elections) and next to
KM Ran Cohen and KM Amnon Rubinstein. The polls started to come in.
Earlier than the first time they flowed in with surprising results.
Almost every place had a huge percent for Yael. My poll (the one
I voted in) had 395 votes for Yael and 29 for Urieli. He one in only
4 out of all the schools. The final results were 67 percent for Yael
and 33 for Urieli (including the soldiers' votes which were 80 percent
in favor of Yael). Also, in the city council we got in 8 representatives
including Yael whom is considered number 1.
Throughout the two weeks before the second round I found out I had a support
group wanting me to be in the city council this time - thus pass some people
on the list. Again, I was very flattered, but it's not possible.
It is a possibility though that some people will resign. I wouldn't
rule out the possibility that I will be in the council by the end of the
five years. Of course, by that time I plan to be in the list in the
elections to the Knesset...