Little Earthquake

May 17, 2005 - 5:03 PM by Allison

Well, there’s a little earthquake going on in local politics. My town of Ra’anana’s legendary mayor Ze’ev Bielski, who we faithfully reelected by an outrageously huge margin only recently, has been tapped to head the Jewish Agency.

Those of us who love Ra’anana’s quality of life and have never lived in a non-Bielski-led town are a bit nervous to put it mildly. This happened really, really suddenly — and we can’t really fault Bielski for doing it to us, because the resignation of the current Jewish Agency chairman was so sudden.

And the job is perfect for him — he is the consummate shmoozer, and an effective administrator. What is terrible news for us is good news for the Jewish world as a whole. If anyone can get the Agency’s act together, it’s Bielski.

It’s a big national story, because it looks like our next mayor will be a guy who is even more famous — infamously famous — than Bielski.

His name is Uzi Cohen.

I looked around the web for a full-on description of the multi-faceted Uzi and lo and behold — the best overview was an an entry on Shai’s blog — which links to this profile from the Jerusalem Post. (Reading the profile, it appears that Uzi charmed the pants off of Larry Derfner, a pretty left-wing guy whose natural inclination wouldn’t be to like him. It looks like he couldn’t help it.)

Trying to look on the bright side, it’s not the end of the world for us if he’s mayor — his heavy-duty national connections have served us well in the past, and may do us good in the future. And he sure knows how to make a city look nice. From the Post piece:

Ra’anana, after all, is not some dead-end town, but rather a model of bourgeois living in Israel, much favored by Anglos. It is one of the most beautiful, best-cared-for, greenest, most prosperous cities in the country. Ra’anana even has big, green street numbers painted on all the buildings so you can actually find where you want to go – a unique touch in Israeli urban design.

“All of this is only because of Uzi. He’s a great man,” says Ben-Zvi Yosef, 41, working at “Fistok’s House,” a snack bar on Ra’anana’s main drag, Rehov Ahuza, a block from City Hall.

“He’s responsible for the appearance of the city – for all the parks, trees, bushes, flowers, street lighting, everything. He said he was going to build a lake in the municipal park and no one believed him, but he did it. Whatever people in the rest of the country think of Uzi, people who live in Ra’anana know the real story. You can see it with your own eyes.”

UPDATE: The city spokesman’s office just clarified — Uzi is definitely going to be mayor, but only for 60 days. She wrote: “Elections will be held for a new Mayor within 60 days of the resignation. The newly-elected Mayor will serve the remaining time of the tenure only, after which time elections will be held for both Mayor and City Council. The acting Mayor, Uzi Cohen, will serve as Mayor for the 60 day period.”

It’s going to be a fun few months in Ra’anana…..

MORE UPDATE: The buzz is that Uzi is waiving his temporary 60-day term and it will go to someone else (Link in Hebrew) No one knows who yet. Does this mean Uzi really doesn’t want to be mayor or is it a strategic move? Time will tell…

Share with others