Mayor Benny visits Baltimore

L-R: Jimmy Berg - Chair of THE ASSOCIATED Board, Benny Vaknin - Mayor of Ashkelon, Marc Terrill- President of THE ASSOCIATED

Benny Vaknin, Mayor of Ashkelon is currently visiting Baltimore together with Eli Dayan - Chairman of Keren Ashkelon, Galit Amzallag - Director of International Relations, Municipality of Ashkelon, and Sigal Ariely.

The Mayor's hectic schedule included the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony.

L-R Jon Laria- President of the Baltimore Jewish Council, Jimmy Berg - Chair of THE ASSOCIATED Board, Marc Terrill - President of THE ASSOCIATED , William Cardinal Keeler- Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore, Catholic Church, Benny Vaknin - Mayor of Ashkelon, Martin O’Malley-Governor

The Mayor's Delegation to Baltimore on a visit to Beit Tfiloh School 

with our Shinshinim  (young emissaries), Tal Bouhnik & Liron Menashe

Rockets on Ashkelon

Rocket landing site in Ashkelon (Photo:Amir Cohen)

So far this windy cold Wednesday morning, more than 60 rockets have been fired on southern Israel, hitting Sderot, Netivot, Ashkelon and the surrounding areas.

The ceasefire with Gaza has ended. During the ceasefire hundreds of rockets were fired on Israel from Gaza, armed terrorists were stopped at the border, and underground hidden tunnels for transporting arms were destroyed, but still the ceasefire was something of a respite from the previous tireless attack.

Yesterday the Ashkelon municipality held a wide-ranging rocket attack drill in the city. Today rockets hit Ashkelon for the second time this week. It's the Hanukah vacation from school and kids at home were woken today by sirens. The boom of the rockets landing was heard all over the city.

We try not to publish the exact landing sites for obvious reasons, but one rocket landed in a central location in a residential neighborhood, another landed near the main Ashkelon beach, and others landed in the industrial area.

Shula Maimon, Head of Ashkelon's Social Services Dept was interviewed on the radio this morning. She said "Many residents are suffering from shock and had to be treated at the hospital for anxiety. Social workers and psychologists are making the rounds of neighborhoods to try and help Ashkelon residents deal with the rocket attacks. There was one house damaged".

Follow the story on http://www.ynet.news/ or http://haaretz.com/ Nicole

The Gueta boys after a rocket landed in their yard while they hid in the "secure room" this morning

Benny Vaknin, Ashkelon recently elected Mayor, analyzes yesterday's rocket attack drill, with top army and municipality personnel.

Ashkelon's New Mayor

Mr Benny Vaknin

Mr Benny Vaknin is an Economist and a Lawyer. He graduated B.A., Economics & Business Admin. from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem; and LL.B. from Tel Aviv University; He is also a Technion Certified Land & Property Assessor.

Mr Benny Vaknin served as Chairman of the Israel Metropolitan Mass Transit System Ltd (The Urban Light Rail System) and as Chairman of Pelephone (Mobile phone) Communications Company Ltd.

Among his past positions, Mr Benny Vaknin served as Mayor of the City of Ashkelon; Director of Bezeq Telephone company; Chairman of ATI - Ashkelon Technological Incubator, and Chairman of The Ashkelon Foundation.

Among the awards received by Mr Benny Vaknin: The Yitzhak Rabin National Prize for Quality in the Public Sector and The Kaplan Prize for Excellence in Management.

Nicole

The photo of Benny Vaknin above, was taken at Bet Tzipora - the full photo is below.

11.11.08 Municipal Election Day

Election day has come and gone but as neither candidate managed to gain 40% of the vote, it's now clear that there will a second round of elections in two weeks time between Benny Vaknin (35% of the vote) and Itamar Shimoni (21% of the vote).

Mayor Roni Mehatzri, with 15% of the vote, will not take part in the second round. Nicole