Election Diary: A move to the right?

By PEGGY CIDOR
• A right-wing list, headed by local activist Aryeh King, is making its way to city council. The proposed list will be composed of all the groups and parties representing the religious and political Right. If elected, the list's first item on the agenda will be to secure seats on the Planning Committee. • The greens are not surrendering. Even after Naomi Tsur, director of urban communities for the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel, dropped them and joined opposition leader Nir Barkat, they are still confident that they will be able to win over the public. Moti Ashkenazi, one of the leaders of the anti-government protest in 1973 following the Yom Kippur War, has joined their ranks. Two other possible candidates for the Green list are Prof. Ariel Cohen, deputy to mayor Ehud Olmert, and former mayoral candidate and Israel Festival CEO Yossi Tal-Gan. For the time being, the greens' strategy is to gain the support of Jerusalem's upper middle class, residents of Beit Hakerem, Rehavia, French Hill, Baka and the German Colony. • A meeting with Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef is scheduled to clarify what the party wants in exchange for supporting United Torah Judaism. Shas seeks to obtain what it considers "a more adequate price for its support" of UTJ. Asked for more details, Deputy Mayor and Finance Committee head Eli Simhayof admitted that there are important committees Shas's members could head, like the Planning Committee, and perhaps even a rotation agreement between UTJ's mayoral candidate and a Shas candidate halfway through the term would, at the least, secure the support of Ashkenazi haredim in the next elections in 2013.