Moshe Kahlon, Israeli finance minister and chairman of Kulanu, is considered one of the politicians most intimately familiar with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's weak spots. He spent years working intensely at his side in Likud, as a Knesset member and later as a minister in Netanyahu's government. This, along with healthy political instincts and a talent for understanding people, has made Kahlon an expert in dealing with Netanyahu and knowing what makes him tick.

Kahlon believes that Netanyahu, at his core, only understands force, that he tends to zigzag and that he folds under pressure, as proven more than a few times in the past. This image of Netanyahu as someone easily pressured and extorted and with a tendency to zigzag has been with him since the beginning of his political career. The person most responsible for shaping this image was the prime minister's greatest rival, the late Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who frequently called Netanyahu a “panicker.” Netanyahu, in fact, earned the reputation. He often zigzagged and folded, even in coalition negotiations, whenever faced with threats from senior Likud members.

Almost none of Netanyahu's political rivals can claim never to have mocked him for being so easily pressured. He has been disparagingly tagged for this in every election campaign. In response to Netanyahu's economic decrees, Tzipi Livni as opposition chair in 2011 said, “This is a prime minister who is easily pressured and only understands force.”

This explains why Kahlon has waged an aggressive campaign against canceling the creation of the Public Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) — to replace the bankrupt Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA) — as Netanyahu wants. He could only imagine Netanyahu at some point conceding. It was beyond his wildest imagination that Netanyahu might give him an ultimatum and threaten to go to new elections, as he did March 19, if Kahlon refused to withdraw his opposition to postponing the IBA's closure and replacement with the PBC.