Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told the Likud party administration not to include him on the Likud list for the 23rd Knesset, Ynet reported on Sunday. Kahlon is expected to officially announce his retirement from political life – a step that Israeli news reports have been predicting in recent months – on Monday.

In a personal conversation with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Kahlon said that he is retiring due to his exhaustion after five intensive years in the Finance Ministry and he intends to spend more time with his family and two grandchildren.

Kahlon served as a Likud MK from 2003 to 2013 as well as Communications Minister and Welfare & Social Services Minister. He took a short break from politics in 2013 and then founded his own party, Kulanu, in 2014, which won ten seats in the 2015 elections. Kulanu subsequently joined Netanyahu’s coalition government and Kahlon was appointed Finance Minister. After Kulanu garnered only four seats in the April 2019 elections, Kahlon agreed to run on a joint ticket with Likud in the September 2019 elections.

Kahlon is expected to continue serving as Finance Minister until the next government is established and retire at the earliest in June 2020.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)