In Israel, the local municipalities like Beit Shemesh, are made up of coalitions, just like the National Government.
Well, not only isn't it working in the Knesset, it's not working locally either.
When Dr. Aliza Bloch was elected as mayor she naively thought she would be able to unite all the factions and thought we could all get along...so she tried putting together a coalition or a " chulent" of different parties, like Degel, Aguda, Shas, Bnei Torah and Likkud.
She needed to satisfy each of them to get them in the coalition.
As you can imagine everyone of them had conditions and interests and many of those conditions conflicted even within the Chareidie parties themselves .
For example, Degel & Aguda had interests that were not in the interests of Shas and Bnei Torah, and the interests of the Beit Shemesh Likkud whose representatives are frum themselves, did not coincide with any of them.
Allow me to give you an example:
There is a new neighbourhood going up across the street of Mishkfayim and adjacent to Ramat Alef called Nevei Shamir or Ramat Hey. They decided to name the streets after Zionist Fighters who gave their very lives for the State of Israel and the Jewish people..fighters such as Hanah Szenes who was parachuted by the British behind German troops to assist anti-Nazi forces to rescue Hungarian Jews about to be deported to the death camps.... Szenes was arrested at the Hungarian border, imprisoned, tortured and executed.
The chareidie parties in the coalition fought tooth and nail against this, insisting that the streets be named after the Jewish months. Charaidim went to the Zionist Courts (no, not to Bais Din, chas ve'shulim) to sue the "Street Naming Committee"....after worrying that the courts may not rule in favor of their petition, they decided to compromise and allowed the streets to be named after Zionists but using last names only; they were frightened that if they would have to G-d forbid say "Rechov Hana Szenes," named after someone murdered 77 years ago , their raging hormones would cause them "to spill their seed in vain."
What is bizarre is that the Chareidiem fighting this, do not plan to live anywhere close to Nevei Shamir ....
Another example of this dysfunctional coalition ....
There is a beautiful park in Alef called Ayalan Park. A couple of weeks ago, the "parks department" decided to build a basketball court for the kids to play..
Apartments in Israel are small, and being outside is the only option for teenagers not to go stir crazy ..... Well the rabbis nixed it .... why?
"because it will cause "Chillul Shabbos'
So throwing rocks at cars is not chillul shabbos?
The rabbis don't understand that teenagers need sports for an outlet ....
There is another park near my home, with a beautiful basketball court and never saw any chillul Shabbos
The following is Dr Aliza's statement
"Out of responsibility for the future of the city and its residents, I can not allow further damage to the city by those who have authority but take no responsibility. A reality in which the deputy mayors and council members harm thousands of the city's students and deprive them of classrooms, both in the old Beit Shemesh, רמה ד and in Neve Shamir, is irresponsible.
A reality in which council members do not allow proper work for municipal departments is not acceptable to me. The perception of the common good will continue to lead me, but with true partners and not alongside coalition members who are operating as an opposition."
