Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s mother, Misa Kahlon, died in May 2018 at the ripe old age of 95. Thousands of people came to console the grieving family during the shiva — the Jewish traditional mourning period of seven days — which took place in a crowded, old apartment in the Givat Olga neighborhood, long home to immigrant families. What made the event unusual was the profile of the people coming to console the family. They included the top leadership of Israel’s political and financial establishments, along with fishermen with their gnarled, rough hands, who grew up in the same neighborhood as Kahlon. They all crowded into the same two-room apartment where Kahlon’s parents, both Libyan immigrants, raised their seven children. As Kahlon explained, every evening the kitchen was transformed into another bedroom.
The childhood memories of Kahlon instantly touched people. It was impossible to remain apathetic after hearing a story like that. It offered such a clear picture of the very essence of Kahlon as finance minister and made the vast difference between his unpromising origins and the heights he achieved in his career so tangible and real.
On Jan. 12, Kahlon informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he has decided not to run for a seat in the next Knesset. He plans to remain in the Finance Ministry until after the March 2 election, at which time a replacement for him will be appointed. His announcement that he was retiring from political life came as no surprise. Kahlon reached it after the September 2019 election when he merged his Kulanu Party with the Likud. Before that election, Kahlon planned to continue serving as finance minister, but he had also reached an agreement with Netanyahu to become more involved in foreign affairs as the government’s focal point vis-a-vis the Arab world. But that government never came into being. Instead, the country found itself embroiled in political turmoil. So Kahlon decided to walk away from the game. Still, he may yet return.
The first seeds of his retirement were sown after the April 2019 election, when the Kulanu Party he headed won only four seats. The political power he wielded as head of a party with 10 seats suddenly vanished, leaving him with a gnawing sense of disappointment with the electorate, which failed to show him any gratitude.
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