Busy with Gaza violence, Netanyahu misses vote for Jerusalem mayor

Preoccupied with the violence in and around Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable cast his ballot Tuesday in the runoff vote for the Jerusalem mayorship.

Shortly after the polling stations closed at 10:00 p.m., his spokesperson told The Times of Israel that he was still at the Kiryah, the Israeli army’s Tel Aviv headquarters. She confirmed that he had not been able to vote.

Netanyahu arrived at the Kiryah at 8:30 a.m. and spend the entire day there, participating in various defense-related consultations, including a seven-hour session of the security cabinet, she said.

The polls in Jerusalem only opened at 1:00 p.m.

Other prominent Jerusalemites who also dealt with the Gaza crisis did find time to vote in the elections, in which Moshe Lion and Ofer Berkovitch faced off, although they do not have Netanyahu’s responsibilities.

President Reuven Rivlin visited an emergency operations center in Netivot, a city near the Gaza border, and spoke with local politicians and residents. Later on Tuesday, Rivlin and his wife Nehama voted at the ‘Yefe Nof’ school in the capital’s Beit HaKerem neighborhood, before returning to their residence in Old Katamon and hosted a delegation of senior faculty from Harvard University.

“There’s a second round but there’s no day off. In any case, go and vote and make your voice heard,” he said, referring to the fact that the first round of the municipal elections, on October 30, was for the first time a vacation day due to a new law.

Minister Ze’ev Elkin — who ran for mayor of Jerusalem himself but failed to advance to the second round — participated in the security cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv and then came back to cast his ballot in the capital.

“Residents of Jerusalem, go out and vote and influence the future of your city,” Elkin wrote on Facebook, next to a photo showing him casting his ballot. “I took my sons to the polling station to teach them that it’s important to come and vote even of you were one of the candidates and lost. One must not give up on one’s right to influence.”

Netanyahu endorsed and campaigned for Elkin but refused to say who he supported in the runoff vote.

“Go and vote!” he said on the day of the first round two weeks ago, after casting his ballot at the Paula Ben-Gurion School in Jerusalem.