Israel is scheduled to hold municipal elections Oct. 30. Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat has announced that he will not run again for the position but will instead try for a spot on the Likud Knesset list in the next general elections. And so the Jerusalem mayoral race has taken up a new dimension. The Likud Party has yet to announce who will be its candidate.

Minister Ze’ev Elkin, after concluding that he was not going to be receiving Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's blessings, at least not at this early stage, announced May 31 that he had decided to run for mayor of Jerusalem anyway. The senior Likud official explained his decision by saying that he believes the position presents a challenge on a nationwide scale and that he is, therefore “willing to give up his position as a senior minister and Cabinet member for it.”

Elkin, who serves as minister of Jerusalem affairs and minister of environmental protection, tried to get the official support of Netanyahu for weeks. He had hoped that Netanyahu would declare him the Likud’s candidate in the municipal elections, but the prime minister took his time on it. Netanyahu’s decision to ignore, or perhaps even abuse, Elkin was the result of a testy relationship between the two men, based on the growing sense in the prime minister’s household that Elkin is not completely loyal to him. Meanwhile, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman started to reach an understanding that they would both support the candidacy of Moshe Leon, a confidante of the Yisrael Beitenu chairman, who ran in the last election in 2013 and was defeated. Now he has decided to run again. Leon, who served as director general of the Prime Minister’s Office during Netanyahu’s first term (1997-1999), was considered a leading candidate for the job until Elkin threw his hat into the ring.

In many ways, Elkin was taking a gamble when he decided not to wait for Netanyahu’s endorsement. Instead, he staked out his place in the race, putting Netanyahu in a difficult position. Almost all senior members of the Likud, including its senior ministers, declared they would support Elkin and wished him luck. Now it is up to Netanyahu to decide if he will remain on the fence and avoid supporting a senior Likud minister who also has a good chance of being elected. To Elkin’s credit, it should be noted that his decision to act independently showed not only courage but also the ability to make tough decisions in less than ideal circumstances, even if the prime minister is ignoring him. His announcement reshuffled the deck, making the race for mayor all the more intriguing, with the minister of defense and the prime minister both directly involved.