Olmert Considers New Israeli Center Party

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert now heads a flourishing consulting firm based in a chic building in downtown Tel Aviv. Former Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon heads a think tank at Netanya College, which focuses on the cost of living. They are both preparing to return to political leadership positions in the next election cycle.

While Olmert and Kahlon are friends, they are not coordinating their moves. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that as the next elections approach, they will combine forces and establish a new center party, particularly if Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid Party keeps heading in the same direction it has been going over the past few weeks and heads for a catastrophic crash. An Olmert-Kahlon party could win the votes of Israel’s political center. Olmert will carry the diplomatic banner in the spirit of a two-state solution, while Kahlon — the “father of cellphone reform” — responsible for a significant reduction in rates, will advocate for social issues.

These two “exes” make no pretenses of concealing how much they crave to return to leadership positions. At an event in London in April 2013, Olmert announced that he wants to be prime minister again, even though he was forced to resign from that position in the wake of criminal investigations after the 2009 elections. He is still a member of the Kadima Party, but that party has become a failing brand over the past few years and was almost wiped out in the last elections, receiving just two seats. The conventional wisdom is that Olmert would prefer to create a fresh new political platform.

The situation for Kahlon is a bit more complicated. Like Olmert, he plans to be a major player in the next elections. The Likud Party is still his home, but senior members of the party with whom he has spoken recently believe that as long as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains the head of the Likud, Kahlon will not run against him. Instead, he will look for a new political home. They say that Kahlon told them that he cannot work with Netanyahu anymore, and that he realizes he may be forced into one of two options: Either he will have to establish some new political framework or join an existing party.