Sharansky endorses Barkat in Jerusalem mayoral race

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
Former Israeli minister and world-renowned Soviet dissident Natan Sharansky on Monday endorsed Jerusalem opposition leader Nir Barkat for next week's Jerusalem mayoral elections. "During my years of public service in the city, I have found in Nir Barkat a true ideological partner in my love and obligation for Jerusalem," Sharansky wrote in a letter of support. Sharansky, who quit national politics two years ago and is now at a conservative Jerusalem research institute, called Barkat a "man of vision" who is committed to the unity of Jerusalem and to the city's urgently needed economic and political betterment. The eleventh-hour endorsement came a day after Barkat's main rival in the November 11 race, MK Meir Porush of the United Torah Judaism Party, said that there would be no secular mayors in Israel within a decade.