The Kulanu party was set to resume coalition negotiations on Wednesday, 12 Nissan after a rough start. Party leader Moshe Kahlon was angered after hearing Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave Yahadut Hatorah control of the Knesset Finance Committee prior to meeting with his party. Kahlon canceled a negotiating session to signal his disapproval.
It has since been reported that Kahlon has reached agreement with Moshe Gafne, who is believed to have received PM Netanyahu’s promise regarding the chairmanship slot, and they two will work together.
It now appears Kulanu has not thrown up its hands and the party continues efforts to take control of the Finance Committee as part of its overall plan to cut housing prices and lower the cost of living. Kahlon is also demanding control of the Israel Lands Administration. He explains his party is not looking for numerous cabinet posts despite having 10 seats, but it must gain control of the treasury and the other agencies if he is to succeed in cutting prices and boost housing starts.
Channel 10 News reported on Tuesday night that Likud sources accuse Kahlon of being unrealistic, and that he is aware his demands are not doable. Some Likud officials blame Kahlon’s unwillingness to exhibit flexibility for possibly compelling PM Netanyahu to turn to the Labor party in an effort to form a national unity coalition. Some believe the threat is nothing more than a pressure tactic as Likud negotiators are trying to compel Kahlon to back down from his demands.
It is also pointed out the Labor party leader Yitzchak Herzog has stated he is going to head the opposition and that he will not enter into a Netanyahu-led coalition so talk of a national unity coalition do not appear to signal today’s current reality.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
1. Likud can shut up the hareidi parties by doing absolutely nothing about conscription. Being a minister or commitee chari won’t matter much if yeshivos are being closed (for aiding and abetting draft resistors) and thousands of talmidim, and rabbanim, and being dragged off for prison (and not for a few days, remember that as soon as released they can be re-arrested for the continuing crime of learning rather than fighting). Lapid would gladly join a government that lets him take credit for getting the hareidim out of the government and into prison (which is what most Israelis prefer).
2. An offer to split patronage with Labor would probably change Herzog’s mind. Remember that the main reason one joins Labor is to get patronage, and being the opposition doesn’t give you any. If the price of “buying” Labor is less than the price of “appeasing” the hareidim and right-wing parties, changes of mind can happen.
Akuperma: I think you are the only person in the Jewish world that actually believes the official zionist propaganda about the conscription law. Nearly everyone here in Eretz Yisroel thinks that this foolish law is DOA. It is patently unenforceable, and the army is not even interested in conscripting the yeshiva boys.
By way of illustration, in the good old days, when “mass arrests” were carried out in the wake of some demonstration or other, there were sometimes “a lot of chareidim” (15-20) locked up in the Russian Compound (Jerusalem poiice HQ). A few more “visitors” would come to visit their imprisoned relatives and all together began belting out that old time favorite “U’be’shilton ha’kofrim ein anu ma’aminim.” The cops at the station would lose their minds and beg them to stop …. Multiply this by 6 or 7 thousand, and you get the idea.
BTW, what makes you think most Israelis prefer to see chareidim in prison? That is an assumption that has no basis in reality at all. True, many seculars would be happier if the chareidim were not in the government coalition, but that the man in the street would like to see “the chareidim” thrown into prison. The real truth about most secular Israelis is that they haven’t the foggiest notion who chareidim are and what we represent. Most of their “knowledge” is gleaned from the TV and newspapers. Sources that the seculars admit are not very reliable.