Word: beitar
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Arkady Gaydamak, the enigmatic Israeli-Russian billionaire, thought he had his campaign for mayor of Jerusalem all gamed out. He was hoping that a win by his Beitar football team last week would boost his chances in the Nov. 11 vote. Indeed, Beitar started strong against rivals Ha'poel from Tel Aviv. Twice, his players sprinted up field, shaking off defenders to take cannonball shots at the goal, but twice the ball struck the crossbar. Beitar was scoreless. Then, in the last six minutes of the game, Ha'poel drilled in two goals. The Jerusalem fans left in a foul...
...idea of Gaydamak emerging as a champion of the city's Arabs baffles his Beitar football fans. The team's supporters are known for shouting "Death to Arabs" during matches. His fans say that while the Russian might know his football, he is clueless about Jerusalem's complexities (nor does he speak much Hebrew). Plus, they say, his advisers are selling him all sorts of crazy schemes so they can grab his shekels. Gaydamak, they say, may be a billionaire in Russia, but in Israel he is a freier, or sucker. (See pictures of Euro 2008 soccer games...
Gaydamak's craziest scheme may be relying on the Arab vote. Not only does he risk losing his Beitar supporters, but traditionally, Jerusalem's Arabs seldom vote. Over the decades, the Palestinian leadership has urged Arabs to boycott municipal elections, claiming that it would validate Israel's "illegal" claim to the city. But the city's Arabs lose everything by refusing to vote. Without anyone lobbying for them on the city council, Arabs receive just one-tenth of municipal services - they have fewer schools, clinics, playgrounds and road repair - despite paying taxes...
...Arab side of town, election day usually starts with a sickening ritual: the few brave voters who appear are beaten up by Palestinian militants. Word of the attacks then spreads swiftly around East Jerusalem, and other Arabs stay away. Beitar's fans may be right: the millions of shekels lavished on the Arab vote may be wasted, as they could be spent on new star players for Gaydamak's luckless team. Meanwhile, Jerusalem, the capital of three monotheistic faiths, could drift toward religious intolerance. As columnist Tom Segev writes glumly in the newspaper Haaretz, "All that is left...
...more than one million Russians in Israel, but he's also reaching out to the Arab community and the Israeli mainstream. He throws extravagant parties for the members of Israel's high society and also builds low-income housing for recent immigrants. He bought an Israeli soccer team, Beitar, whose fans are mainly working-class Likud supporters known to chant "death to the Arabs" from the stands. He also owns a basketball team, Hapoel, that is usually cheered on by middle-class centrists, leftists and Arab Israelis. He has also donated money to an Arab soccer team...
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