Inside Israel Today: The Mayor's Parting Words

you're listening to inside Israel today with Gil Huffman on the Land of Israel Network hello and welcome to inside Israel today here on the land of Israel Network on the land of israel comm where we have a special interview today with the outgoing mayor of jerusalem near bar khat he is not running again for mayor after 10 years in office because he wants to be a national leader he's going to be running in our Knesset election in the liquid party in 2019 and he has left behind a vacancy where there are many competitors the main competitors being the Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Zev Elkin who he supports the head of the heat or arute party / bercovich who bar khat is very critical of as you will see and the former deputy mayor motion Leon of the Jerusalem is mine party who the mayor is also quite critical of this interview was done for the Jerusalem Post and we're using the audio with the permission of the newspaper you can of course read the article at WWJ post com so here is our interview that we taped earlier with the mayor of Jerusalem near bar khat mayor near bar cut your plan that you had of having our Minister of Jerusalem affairs of ELQ and replaced you seems to be up in the air right now we have no idea at this point whether he's going to make a two-man runoff race in the crowded field of candidates are you worried first of all I believe he will win but let me expand a second on why I believe and feel that the military can should replace me you have to understand the complexity of our city it's not a game Jerusalem for Jerusalem to succeed you need to understand how to manage complex situations and know how to create a partnership and support and relationship between the different sectors for Jerusalem to succeed you cannot focus on who wins and who loses you have to make sure that you create a win-win relationship internally between the different sectors you have to understand how to operate with the secular people with the national religious with the ultra-orthodox with a air population and you have to have a holistic approach to the city then we're talking about managing 9 billion shekels and 10,000 employees and you have to buy your way into the government and know how to solicit and increase funding by the national government and you have to deal with really complex situations and I from I know all the candidates I I know all of them and I think from all of them there's no doubt in my mind that he's best suited for the job in terms of skills and experience and potential and smartness and the ability to cross sector from the secular to the national religious through the to the ultra-orthodox one thing that Zev Elkin does not have as a political base in the city you know Moshe Lyon has a very true it's not true what we've been saying oh well the natural religious people in the city of Jerusalem the people that are right-of-center are and a lot of academics that are right of center are certainly a base and the support that the lking has from the national religious people in the city is is strong and it's a very good thing so the latest polls showed that the right now if the election would happen now that over bercovich would win the most votes and make it into the runoff race in the second round and that mostly on and ZEB Elkin are running neck and neck for that second place and then you've got Dave the deputy mayor way behind Ike so are you surprised that bercovich has gotten so much support that this far into the election it's looking like he'll get the most votes in the first round so let me start off by saying that also a little which will lose the second round to any competitor and so I think that and the reason is that his he's limited in his ability clear partnerships and he does not know how to CAPTCHA he does not know how to cross between the secular and to the ultra-orthodox and the same that dykes does not know how to bring secular people their cookies does not know how to go through to the ultra-orthodox vector which is unfortunate because to manage the city you have to gain trust of all people and so I think that everyone from my perspective I believe he will not win the second round whoever he runs against it's it's an alkene or alone and so the challenge is not who wins the first round if when you win the first round it challenge is who's going to win the second round and who can cross the aisle and to create a more of a heterogeneous support around him I believe what I've done in the city is a cross the aisle and create a trust between the different sectors and we had a wide coalition unfortunately that would be very difficult for him to do and so I believe that people should think is who has the best chance to be mayor and not necessarily who I think I like most or who was the most similar to me who could do the best job crossing the aisle and representing all sectors in a balanced way and that's where Elkin comes in far far far better in my mind than the other candidates the word that you used in the Knesset when we were speaking privately which if you feel comfortable speaking about it publicly was a very strong word you called over bercovich a charlatan unfortunately I think you've got he's got good intentions and of course supporters of their comics have really good good intentions from the seven years he's been working in the municipality unfortunately lacks in experience and lacks the depth needed to get into details and and lead the professional team the professional team had significant challenges issue bene she interpersonal relationships and the ability to bring them on board and manage management and it's something that he must learn is an experience and my concern is his ability to lead big big teams big professional teams and the human relations that he needs to improve that in order to take another taking like a city of Jerusalem I also believe that you gather all that together with the he came into the municipality was a very little experience in management especially management of large-scale organization and I don't think that when I stick to the professional team in the Miss authority they did not know or he did not know how to work together in a smooth way to focus on growth I think he's a last thing I would say that the Figge is good in his marketing in Facebook but that that's not deep enough to to lead and manage the city of Jerusalem and for me I also look back that I understand that everything that's been done in the last decade is all sort of funny and he takes credit for everything but what in the last ticket a decade and of course all the challenges is not his so to be a team player you need not to take credit for yourself you need to share credit you need to create partnerships and when somebody comes along and explains that all the good stuff that is happening in the city of Jerusalem was done by him I think there that's that's my there is not unfortunately better work now no one could say that emotionally owned doesn't have managerial experience he's been successful running an accounting firm for many years he was the director general of the Prime Minister's office in that regard he's the opposite of over bercovich and he was a partner as your deputy mayor over the last few years wouldn't that make you support him why did he not get your support well first of all he's my friend and indeed the very fundamentally different personality he has a significant management experience indeed then my role as mayor as rabbi mordechai Lee outside told me to take care of the quality which align to take care of Jerusalem I have to judge who I believe will do the best job for the city of Jerusalem and I believe that Elkin has the right attitude the right ideology and the experience together I'm a bit concerned about the support that they don't get from two parties that have very little together which is liberal man and the theory it raises questions as to the commitment and his loyalty to whoever he's loyal to and so if I again compare surveilling to Michelle on then I think it's a fundamentally significant difference between the ability to manage complex situations and to in my mind it's a big difference so I agree with you though that is a different category than the Kovich well Arya Derry served a prison sentence for bribery Avigdor Lieberman has been accused of many crimes though never was convicted having these two as his main political patrons does that make Moshe lone guilty by association when he's never been really questioned for anything serious as far as I know going back there's no connection with the ideology of these were the two people and so one question is what what does make them both support Michelle own good alkene he's got the support of the Prime Minister he's got my support is that the support of the majority is all of the ministers in the country in the hood it's got the support of Bennett and by tud so he's representing the McConnell Umi and in general so with the National Arts and many many parties yeah I think it's very very simple supporting an alkene you know what you get you know the vision you know the connection to the government you know the support that he will continue getting like I did from Prime Minister Netanyahu that we could and naturally I will help in any way shape or form I can was to any mayor of course I I prefer that it will be alkyne and so he's going to be enjoying a very strong network in minister alkyne and a very strong deep support of the of the national parties in the government and of course 25 percent of the public well I'll tell you one thing that he Elkin is definitely missing and so are the other candidates in one way or another which is I don't know if any of them it would be willing to do an interview like this in English I don't know if any of them is worldly enough to meet with the President of the United States when he comes to Jerusalem and present a global face for the city the way that you have successfully over the last 10 years the way that a Omer did before despite where he ended up Jerusalem doesn't have a the kind of worldly global kind of candidate at all in this race is that okay well from all the candidates he was talking about the one with most international experience isn't him you know I need translation for Russia and I need translation for Spanish and Portuguese and French and I think lking as knowing how to sit and help the Prime Minister Netanyahu with a relationship with Putin and others put them in a fundamentally the most experienced international of all the candidates I'm not concerned about translation to different languages I'm conservative experience and understanding the holistic approach and if anything the International element here that I think definitely Elkin has a niche so my last question is about the diplomatic plan for Jerusalem that he advocated as Jerusalem affairs minister and they know that as mayor you have less of a role in this but his plan for keeping Arab neighborhoods outside of the missile borders of Jerusalem and making them into a separate municipality has been criticized by emotionally owned as dividing Jerusalem how do we explain to the world why it's not well first of all there should be the last person talking about this because both very that supported the divide in the country Oslo and Lieberman is willing to give up big neighborhoods of Jerusalem he should be the his supporters he should be the last to criticize everything which is nonsense rebel Keene is a believes in the unity of the city of Jerusalem there was a technical discussion I haven't managed the neighbourhoods outside the fence I disagree with everything on this point and I'm not sure that he has not changed his mind on it because when you get into the details of it then you understand and my recommendation that the national government is not to make such a move which eventually did not happen but from here to say that Ed Gein wants to divide Jerusalem is total nonsense okay well you're got a challenge ahead you've got an election for Knesset coming up we don't know yet when it's going to be unless it you know you're very close to Netanyahu as the prime minister told you when he wants to initiate this election no not told me wait patiently I'm continuing to being there until end of November and and then start focusing on national stuff naturally the next phase in my life and whatever I do is a combination of what the public wants to do and what Prime Minister Netanyahu would likely be do and I will do whatever it takes and to help and help and help Prime Minister Netanyahu good luck with that for the good of the country and thank you for your time thank you one more thing if you don't mind please I thought you didn't ask that I could even ventually you will find three players on the field in the first round there's a reasonable chance that not all four will run and there's no doubt in my mind that if also the vehicle which comes to the second round he will certainly lose to both candidates and if alkene when it comes to the second round certainly he will win both candidates therefore the focus of the public should be who do you want to win the second round and that's what you should vote for not who you want get into the second round the focus should be who do you want to win the second round from the three major players and actually you said yourself that you will certainly not make it to the second round and the question is who from the three or from the two between 17 and Michelle Iran who do you want to win the election and if you put your vote to die or bell kovitch you're throwing away your vote for mayor you want to choose their party that's fine but I strongly recommend you to consider who you want to be the mayor between lking and the michelle iran and my recommendation to the public it skipped the first phase though the second phase immediately because one of the two will be the next mayor of Jerusalem we shall see I believe it's gonna be okay thank you so much mayor Burkhart Mike that was the mayor of Jerusalem near bar cot exclusively here on inside Israel today on the land of israel network on the land of israel calm the election is a week away ladies and gentlemen next time we're sitting here we will be in the midst of all the excitement's and we'll probably be out there in the field maybe we'll go to polling station over here democracy in action here inside Israel today thanks for being with us Shalom from Jerusalem bye-bye tune in to an exclusive interview with Jason green black white house chief and boy to the Middle East at the end of the day we don't resolve the situation in Gaza it will be an obstacle on the road to peace so separate from the humanitarian issue Hamas itself is an obstacle in the road piece that's it's all uncensored it's Josh Easton on the land of install network at the lands of Israel dot-com