The wild card

With Meir Porush facing possible failure in the election, Aryeh Deri has announced his candidacy... on the condition he is allowed to run.

By PEGGY CIDOR
After three weeks of deliberation, unofficial and conflicting reports and a lot of rumors, the official announcement came Tuesday morning on Army Radio: Aryeh Deri, the "CEO of the country" as he used to be called, is back in business. A few hours later, Deri submitted his candidacy for review to the chairman of the Central Elections Committee, Judge Eliezer Rivlin. In case Rivlin decides that the charge of moral turpitude, which his 1999 convictions carry, still prevents him from running, Deri has already announced that he will seriously consider submitting an appeal to President Shimon Peres for a pardon. According to Deputy Mayor Eli Simhayof, the main reason behind Deri's decision is haredi mayoral candidate Meir Porush's poor showing in the polls, which is perceived as a failure of Ashkenazi haredim to keep Jerusalem in haredi hands. "Had the Ashkenazi rabbis decided to listen to the mood in the streets, and allowed [Mayor Uri] Lupolianski to run again, Aryeh would have never entered the race, but the polls are clear: Porush has no chance against [opposition leader Nir] Barkat," says Simhayof. "An agreement is an agreement: There's no way, inside haredi society, that the rotation agreement between Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah could be broken. Deri is not part of this agreement, he can decide to run. No one, and certainly not Deri, could stay indifferent in the face of the polls, which predicted that under Porush's candidacy, the haredim would lose Jerusalem. So in a way, you can say that he [Deri] had no choice," continues Simhayof. THE CHARISMATIC Sephardi leader was convicted in 1999 of fraud, breach of trust and bribery (of a sum of $155,000) during his term as interior minister, and he was sentenced to three years in jail. His prison term began in September 2000. At the time of Deri's conviction, offenses carrying a charge of moral turpitude prevented those convicted from running for public office until five years had elapsed from the end of their sentence. Since then, the term has been extended to seven years, which means Deri would not be able to run until mid-2009. However, Deri and his supporters maintain there is no reason he should bear a retroactive penalty, and thus he should be eligible to run this year. Deri was released early on good behavior after 22 months of incarceration and has since then avoided any public appearances. The official word was that Deri had finished with politics, and for the past three years had been earning his livelihood from importing and selling Italian designer suits to wealthy yeshiva students. Since his first appearance on the political scene and thereafter as he transformed Shas from just another small Sephardi political party into the third-largest party in the country (with 17 seats in the Knesset in the 1992 elections), for many, whether secular, traditional or haredi, Sephardi or Ashkenazi, Deri has become an icon. Throughout his trial and on the day of his incarceration, Deri was surrounded by thousands of fans, all of them convinced that he was "stopped by the evil forces of both Ashkenazim and leftists who couldn't bear the success of a Sephardi yeshiva student." The late Yitzhak Rabin didn't hide his close ties with him; Vice Premier Haim Ramon has become one of his best friends; and even former Jerusalem mayor Teddy Kollek testified as a character witness on his behalf. Songs were composed about him ("Hu Zakai," "He's Innocent"), and during the first weeks of his prison sentence, his supporters ran an open yeshiva called "The roar of the lion" outside Ma'asiyahu Prison where he was serving his sentence. Among the visitors and supporters at the yeshiva were many public figures, not limited to Sephardim or haredim, like former editor-in-chief of Ma'ariv, Amnon Dankner, and singer Ariel Zilber. In Jerusalem was unable to obtain an interview with Deri and a press conference was scheduled for after press time, but his close friends and former colleagues spoke of his character and his chances in the elections. "I always thought that Deri would return to politics. He is the best and I have promised myself that just as I escorted him to jail then, I will accompany him now, into Kikar Safra, as mayor of Jerusalem," Zaka emergency rescue organization head Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who is an Ashkenazi haredi, said this week. Deri supporters and opponents alike agree that, "nothing will be the same once Deri is in the game." "Deri's candidacy has completely changed the rules of the game," says city councilor Meir Turgeman. "If Deri runs, I will support him and I will not be alone, even though in my community we're supposed to back the Ashkenazi candidate," says Meshi-Zahav. "The problem is not Barkat but Porush," says a Shas city councillor. "Porush will never resign from his candidacy, and there's no way the haredi community - Ashkenazi and Sephardi - will allow itself to run two candidates, the rabbis will never allow it." "In the rotation agreement between Agudat Yisrael and Degel Hatorah, nobody took into account the Sephardi haredim, so why should Deri care about them now?" says Avishay Ben-Haim, religious affairs reporter for Ma'ariv, an expert on the Shas party and a close friend of Deri's. "In the eyes of the Ashkenazi haredim, Shas and its constituency were never important, they didn't even bother asking them what their position was. "That famous agreement between Lupolianski's and Porush's parties inside UTJ [United Torah Judaism] - how come they didn't even conceive that the third candidate could come from Shas?" he continues. "Wasn't Shas created just because of these things [discrimination against Sephardim]? Have we regressed 20 years? "Of course Deri couldn't bear it [a secular mayor], he had to do something. Porush has been raised as a prince in a dynasty, who deserves everything, but these times are gone, they [Ashkenazi haredim] should wake up." "Deri has three obstacles in his way to run [for mayor]," explains Simhayof. "First he had to obtain the approval and blessing of Rabbi Ovadia [Yosef] and Rabbi [Yosef Shalom] Elyashiv, and then the authorization of the Central Elections Committee. The first two tasks have already met with success, now he just has to wait for Judge Rivlin's decision. "If he secures the judicial OK, nothing will stop him," continues Simhayof. "There's no way that if Aryeh realizes that he can save the city that he will not do it." "IT'S AMAZING that all these people are concerned about the judicial aspect - as if it really were the issue," says Meretz city councillor Pepe Alalu. "Deri's problematic candidacy is not based upon his judicial situation. Of course if he has completed his jail term and the additional five years since the end of his sentence, I agree there is no problem [for him to run] from a legal point of view. The question is: Do we, residents of Jerusalem, and since we're talking about the capital, all the citizens of Israel, want an ex-convict, who went to jail because he accepted bribes, as our mayor? Is this the man that should represent us in the eyes of society and the world? I really believe we deserve more." "I will go to the High Court of Justice to oppose his candidacy," says Meretz city councilor Sa'ar Netanel, who will not be running in the elections. "Of course I will do anything in my power as a citizen and as a city council member and supporter of democracy to ban him from the post of mayor. "These people don't realize that we don't want [former] criminals as leaders - we're forcing the resignation of a prime minister for this kind of issue - so how can we accept someone like Deri as mayor?" he continues. "It's not that I'm afraid he will take bribes or steal our money again. I guess he has learned his lesson, but it is a matter of public affairs: A mayor cannot be someone who has committed a felony. To me it's obvious, and his capacities and skills are not the issue at all." Following Deri's announcement, Porush issued an official statement that the rabbis would ultimately decide who would be the haredi candidate, and until then and the decision of the Central Elections Committee, it would be "business as usual." Barkat's office said: "Jerusalem is a life's mission, not a job to secure. The elections will not only decide who is the next mayor, but also the future and the strength of the city. Barkat is the only candidate that can ensure Jerusalem its deserved status and achieve the challenges awaiting the city. The residents of Jerusalem seek real change and would like to see at the head of the most important city in the world someone with a vision who can implement these changes for the benefit of Jerusalem."