8/6/98
The
father, the son and the holy babas
Benny or Gabi?
On November 13, one of them will be mayor of Dimona. The
other will go home and cry in his pillow.
This fight's a lulu. In one corner, we have Gabi Laloush,
50-year-old champion since 1989. In the other, challenger Benny
Biton, 38. The referee is Albert Asaf, deputy mayor and one of
our odder politicians.
Since late last year, Gabi and Benny have been trash-talking
each other, and it's gotten downright personal. They wail and
flail at each other in the local
newspapers, through city councillors, even on posters pasted on trucks, but
not face to face. Uh-uh. They ain't talking to each other.
The crux of the dispute is that since 1983 Laloush has
fathered Biton from political babyhood, and Biton now wants to use everything he's learned to beat
his mentor to a pulp. Biton calls that a fair fight; Laloush says it's hitting
below the belt.
And because this is Dimona, you have to factor in the babas
-- the guru rabbis most people here obey.
Friday mornings, the men gather round the cafes and talk
Dimona politics. The Biton camp at this table, the Laloush camp
at that table. They read the just-published local weeklies, and
debate what's been said about whom. The newspapers give them plenty of fodder.
On one recent Friday, Laloush ran a full-page letter in
ג€Mabitג€ crying out at Biton:
ג€YOU WERE LIKE A SON.
ג€With love I raised you. You were a son of my home, we
ate together, slept together, traveled together. I took you off
a machine at the Dead Sea [Works], I elevated you, I exalted you,
I made you my deputy, I gave you power. And you undermined me...ג€
The lament ends:
ג€YOU BETRAYED ME, FRIEND.ג€
In the same issue is a clarion headline:
ג€LALOUSH, APOLOGIZE!ג€
It is an attack on the mayor for his treatment of Biton.
It is not signed by Biton, but by a mysterious organization called ג€The Dimona Faithful.ג€ Faithful
to whom? Pretty obvious.
The following week's issue included a 2ֲ½ page interview
with Biton, a full-page ad of gratitude to Laloush from railway workers, and facing that,
another page of thanks that mentions both Biton and Laloush.
As you can imagine, it didn't end there. A couple of weeks
later, in the local ג€Lehiton,ג€ there was a color cover photo of
Biton, a full-page color photo of Biton on 4, an ad from the Dimona Faithful, a headline proclaiming Biton as
Dimona's next mayor, a story about Biton opening his new office, an item on
8 about Laloush refusing to convene the city council. Even on the sports page
thereג€™s a picture of Biton and a news item revealing that Dimona's Next Mayor
attended a Hapoel Dimona soccer game in Holon and ג€encouraged the teamג€
(nevertheless, they drew 1-1). Only the horoscope failed to extol him.
Biton, a likable young man, speaks graciously about his
rival -- well, for as long as he can.
ג€In his first term [1989-1993] Laloush did excellent work.
A revolution. In his second term, Gabi started to get tired, and
the city began to slide.ג€ He smiles benignly. ג€I think Gabi is
a good fellow -- yes, I know he's angry at me. He's a good fellow,
but everything good that happened, he took credit, everything
bad, Albert and I took the blame. OK, that's politics.
ג€Then I ran against him in the internal Likud elections,
and I got 65%, he and Albert together got 35%. For two months
Gabi didn't say a word to me. I was his deputy! Then someone told
me that he called me a liar in a meeting, and all sorts of things.
Hey, that's not nice, not dignified. I always gave him respect.
ג€Then he said he was going to relieve me of all my duties.
Well, I held almost all the portfolios in the city. OK, I said,
you do that. But he couldn't get rid of me, I had all the support
at City Hall.
ג€So instead, he decided to throw me and my pregnant secretary
out of our office, out of the building.ג€
Now Biton is fulminating. ג€He threw me out! I still do
all my duties, but he won't talk to me. I manage the whole city.
He's nothing!
ג€I think Gabi Laloush knows he won't be mayor again. Ask
anyone. Benny Biton will be the first mayor born and raised in
Dimona.ג€
Hopping mad now. ג€There's a large truck driving around
town with the words 'Benny the Traitor.' I'm sorry, but that's
outrageous.
ג€I'm not embarrassed to say he made me, but we made each
other; he raised me from political infancy, but this is what he
raised me to be.ג€
He hammers his desk. ג€He doesn't understand democracy.
He's lost his way, this boy.ג€
ALBERT ASAF is a free-thinking, liberal intellectual -- which in Dimona, he
admits, is considered weird. He's a politician who says politicians are ג€bastards
... manipulators.ג€ He is unafraid to label his townsmen as ג€simplistic.ג€
He risks condemnation for heresy by the way he rails against
their saintly babas (ג€I don't believe God gave rabbis any special
powersג€). His office walls are conspicuous for their lack of obligatory
photos of the various gurus. For philosophic inspiration, he prefers
Kant, Plato, Spinoza. He's a Gabi man, but still talks to Benny.
ג€Benny has every right to go up against Gabi, but all along
Benny promised he'd never challenge him. So one day the mayor
wakes up and finds Benny is running against him. He's hurt, personally.
It's as if you raise a son and while you're still alive he wants
your inheritance now. It doesn't hurt?ג€
On the other hand, he allows, all's fair in politics. ג€Good
people don't go into politics. So who stays in politics? All the
garbage.ג€
He says, with surprising candor, that he expects
to find himself out in the cold after the elections. Mind you,
word around town is that if Benny wins, he'll give Albert a job.
SO WHO ya gonna vote for? The question caused an uproar at seedy Independence
Cafe.
ג€They're both fanatics, egotists,ג€ brays a glowering
young man named David. ג€They only care about their own asses.ג€
ג€They're both good for the city,ג€ says Shlomo, a
banqueting-hall manager. ג€The problem is, people here are friends
with both. But I don't like the way they're carrying on in public.
Even if it is politics, it should be respectful, dignified.ג€
ג€I'll tell you how people will vote,ג€ chips in Haim,
44. ג€People who go to Gabi for a favor and get it, they'll vote
Gabi. If Benny helps them, they'll vote Benny. It's personal.
Nothing else matters.ג€
It may stink, but thatג€™s politics.
You can't talk about one candidate or the other without
debating one baba or the other. Albert Asaf believes the more
politically inclined among them will sit on the fence until it
is apparent who will win the election, and then hop off onto the
winning side. (You may recall that centenarian mystic Rabbi Kadourie
was helicoptered into Dimona near the end of the last election
campaign.)
Gabi and Benny both say they believe in the babas,
and rumors abound over which one each could garner.
The Baba Elazar, the Baba Aza. The Baba Rentgen,
the Baba Baruch.
Stirring his coffee, Haviv snorts in disgust at the
mix of politics and rabbinics. He leers mockingly. ג€The only one I believe in is the Baba Barbie.ג€
UPDATE: Gabi Lalouche won the elections.
