Has Israel's finance minister lost his fans?
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's supporters are disappointed, as they believed he would fight for the rule of law and the new public broadcasting corporation but now see him abandoning political battles that might mark him as a leftist, guided primarily by political survival.
Two highly publicized demonstrations took place in less than one mid-November week outside the new apartment block in Haifa, where Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon lives. The homes of Israel’s finance ministers have always been a popular target for demonstrations, and the current one is no exception. What distinguishes Kahlon is that these demonstrations do not focus on budgetary or economic issues. They are about the rule of law (Kahlon is accused of not defending it) and about the prime minister’s predatory actions concerning the media (that Kahlon now seems to be going along with).
On the evening of Nov. 15, dozens of would-be employees of the new public broadcasting corporation gathered outside Kahlon's home. They came to protest him stepping back from his promise to protect them from Netanyahu’s efforts to shut down the nascent corporation. The staff got the news that afternoon, while the finance minister attended a journalism conference in Eilat. While speaking on a panel, he announced that public broadcasting could be maintained through the old Israel Broadcasting Authority, which until now was slated for closure.
The senior members of the corporation and the hundreds recruited to staff it now face an uncertain future. For them, Kahlon’s statement was an enormous blow. Through his media appearances until then and hints he relayed through his inner circle, Kahlon delivered the unequivocal message that he would back them against Netanyahu. On Oct. 31, only two weeks earlier, he announced that he did not plan to give in to Netanyahu on this issue, and if necessary, he would veto the elimination of the new corporation. In private conversations, he spoke out even more vigorously, leading people to believe that he had been firm with Netanyahu in a private meeting. Kahlon had supposedly said that he would have no problem bringing down the coalition over this issue.
Several days passed, and Kahlon proved yet again that he acts, first and foremost, on behalf of his personal political interests. In this particular case, the last thing the Kulanu chair needs is to see the government fall apart over something that was never one of his top priorities. Furthermore, the prime minister has succeeded in making the public broadcasting corporation a divisive issue between left and right. In other words, if Kahlon challenged Netanyahu over it, he would be marked publicly as a leftist. As a former member of the Likud whose hardcore supporters identify with the right, Kahlon realized that the issue could potentially cause significant damage to his political future.
