Israel's popular daily newspaper Yediot Aharanot devoted 16 pages of its front section last week to America's president-elect. And that was before Obama asked Rahm Emmanuel, son of Israeli emigres, to serve as White House chief of staff.
All the media gushing over Obama finally got to one Reshet Bet radio political commentator who asked the interviewer in exasperation, "Don't you realize that 46 percent of Americans voted for the other guy??"
In fact, in an interesting turn of events, polls show that around 80 percent of American immigrants here voted for McCain, while some 78 percent of American Jews voted for Obama.
We just have different priorities--the bulk of American Jewry no longer has Israel at or even near the top of their political agenda, while those of us who have chosen to cast our lot with the destiny of the Jewish people in her homeland no longer regard abortion or Supreme Court judges as defining issues of the day.
As a matter of fact, since "all politics is local," our attention quickly turned to the local elections to be held here this coming week. Who will be the next mayor of Jerusalem is the question occupying our minds at the moment.
Whoever wins will have the unenviable task of managing the multitude of day-to-day problems plaguing this ancient city at the center of the world. No one has any illusions that the next mayor will be able to do an Obama in terms of bringing together Arabs and Jews who share this city in uneasy proximity. But we too have our candidate of "change" here in the person of Nir Barkat, a former high-tech entrepreneur who is about the same age as Obama.
Voter turnout will be the crucial factor here as Barkat faces Meir Porush from the ultra-orthodox community, a sector well-experienced in the fine art of turning out their voters en masse.
Elections take place on November 11...if you can stand to follow another round of election results, stay tuned...
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