During the reign of the Chareidie Abutbul as Mayor, the corruption was rampant with many of his administration arrested for being on the take. In addition, he allowed the extremists free reign and they got out of control spitting on children going to school while screaming and barking "Shiksas" "tznuah" etc. Basically, terrorizing the rest of Beit Shemesh.
When Dr. Aliza Bloch won in the last election, the extremists were a little bit more restrained, as Dr. Bloch is not a Chareidie but is basically from the Dati Leumi crowd, and they were not comfortable raising the bar, though, they did do much damage to the city, both physically and besmirching the name of entire Beit Shemesh. Just recently when Dr. Bloch came to visit a school, they surrounded her car and almost killed her, the army had to rescue her from these untamed barbarians. People hearing that I live in Beit Shemesh ask right away "How do you live with these extremists?" The truth is that the extremists are a minority of a minority and when they make trouble it is always in the news.
Being that the city has turned Chareidie, I thought that Dr. Aliza Bloch would have as much chance of winning this election as a snowball in Eilat!
So Hashem sent Deri to throw a hatchet into the election.
Until Deri put his nose in, it was between Dr. Bloch the present Mayor and Shmuel Grinberg, a non-English speaker, running in a more or less Anglo community! Deri asked Abutbul the previous Mayor whose administration was plagued by scandal after scandal, to run, to knock out Grinberg.
Why?
Deri doesn't really care about Beit Shemesh and doesn't care what happens there! He actually lives in Har Nof in Yerushalyim and his power base is in Yerushalayim and Bnei-Brak. So why get involved?
Politics!!!! And Politics brings the shekels. Deri needs to get Shas guys elected in all Chareidie cities to wield power.
He is the leader of the Shas party founded by Rav Avadia Yosef z"l after Rav Yosef had a huge falling out with Rav Shach z"l! He is a Sfardie, and he hates Ashkenazim, (for good reason, I may add).
Supposedly he had a deal in Bnei Brak and in Elad with Aguda and Degel about some candidate running for Mayor where they were all on the same page. For some reason, Degel had a falling out with Shas, they may have breached their agreement, so to even the score so to speak, he pushed Abutbul to run in Beit Shemesh, he got Ger and the Aguda on board. This was to knock out Grinberg who was endorsed by Degel. No Chareidie endorsed Dr. Bloch.
Just that you guys know, the loshon hara between the candidates Abutbul and Grinberg hit the roof, and both bad-mouthed Dr. Bloch. Dr. Bloch the classy lady, stayed above the fray and didn't badmouth either candidate, she just kept repeating her record of trying to help everyone.
Understand so far?
Good because I don't, either way, all hell broke loose!
To become the Mayor of Beit Shemesh, you need at least 40% of the vote. No one reached the 40% mark but Abutbul got the least and so he is out! Good riddance!
In a Chareidie Town you would think that Dr. Aliza Bloch, a Dati Leumi person, would have no chance. But Hashem has a sense of humor and sent in the Gerer troops to put a hex on Grinberg!
The Gerers hate Grinberg because he was endorsed by Degel. He was also endorsed by their arch-enemy Rav Shaul Alter.
Shmuel Grinberg the guy who cannot utter one English word in a town dominated by Anglos dragged in old feeble out-of-town rabbis to a huge, massive gathering to endorse his candidacy. This gathering was in a Beit Shemesh Sports Center where for years the Chareidim yelled that one is not allowed to step in there. How we change things for "teirah"
All those rabbis kept talking about doing "histadlus" yet not one mentioned the concept of "Betachon," I guess when it comes to Chareidie interests in elections there is no concept of "Betachon." only "hishtadlus" plays a role.
As an aside that when it comes to serving our country, "hishtadlus" is thrown out the window and only "bitachon" plays a role! Chareidim are the only ones who have the license to decide when to invoke "hishtadlus" and when to invoke "Betachon." The author of Chovas Halvovos is turning in his grave.
So now that the Gerers who endorsed Abutbul, will not in any way endorse Grinberg, Dr. Aliza Bloch has a chance of winning.
All this may change at any time since the political situation is so volatile.
I hear as I am typing this that Grinberg is reaching out to Ger and Aguda and offering them high positions in his cabinet
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