Laying the foundation stone for E1, or just political scoring?

This week, with great fanfare (and expense to the taxpayer), Mayor Benny Cashriel held a "groundbreaking" ceremony at the E1 site (what is supposed to be a new neighborhood providing contiguous building between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem).

Attending were some scores of high school students, mostly from the religious schools, a smattering of the Maale Adumim population and a grand score of two members of Parliament.

As Rafi Ben-Hur (the leader of the opposition) succintly, if not a bit harshly, put it in his weekly column, this was a total waste of public funds, whose only purpose was to score some publicity for Cashriel and did bugger all for really getting E1 of the ground.

As Rafi rightly said, today's population of Maale Adumim is very different to those who founded the city. Back then people were willing to camp out on the barren hills and brave real danger in order to fulfil a dream of settling the land. The leaders were focused and less politically motivated because they had nothing to lose.

Unlike today.

Cashriel, despite last year's show of moving the municipal offices to E1 (which lasted all of two weeks) will not do anything radical that might endanger any future job he might get in the Likud heirarchy when he quits (or gets voted out) the Maale Adumim municipality.
What is called for, is actual building on the E1 site, even if just a few houses but with the authority of the leadership.

The pity is, that Cashriel has done a superb job of making Maale Adumim an exceptionally good city in just about every way. However too much of a good thing, at least in my opinion, is damaging the city more than doing good.

In order to keep his authority, Cashriel, like all good dictators, has surrounded himself with yes men, who are at best mediocre or just plain frightened.

While this sort of government could, (and did) work with a smaller population, with the city reaching a population of 40,000, something has to give.
In fact, we are seeing some deterioration in education and there is an increase in violence. Both are issues that have been central to Cashriel's stand as mayor (Education and Quality of Life is what Maale Adumim has advertised consistently - and so far, rightly)

I dont know if Cashriel will win, or even stand for another election, however he should act now, so that his last years wont be seen as a fizzle for both himself and Maale Adumim.

As far as E1 is concerned, a bit of courage is called for. There are enough people who would rally for that.