A hard right to Jerusalem

November 4, 2008 was exactly 13 years from the day Yigal Amir killed then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, out of fear for the latter’s intention to conclude a peace with the Palestinians and give up part of what the Orthodox Jews perceive as the God-given land of greater Israel. The murder (finally) opened the eyes of the western world that Israel is to a large extent a religious state, which since its inception in 1948 has grown ever more so. This religousity was illustrated by the country’s municipal elections on November 12, especially by those in Jerusalem. The main candidates for the Holy City’s top job were colorful, to say the least, and as such a good reflection of the complex make-up of Israeli society. In the race were the eventual winner, Nir Barkat, a sharply-dressed former paratrooper and software tycoon, Meir Porush, an ultra-orthodox Rabbi portrayed on election posters