Moshe Kahlon Stirring Up the Next Earthquake in Israel’s Elections

By: Yori Yanover

Published: November 1st, 2012

Minister of Communications, Welfare & Social Services Moshe Kahlon embraced and congratulated by Likud members.
Photo Credit: Yossi Zeliger / FLASH90

When Likud Minister of Communications, Welfare & Social Services Moshe Kahlon announced last week that he was staying off the ballot in his party's upcoming primaries, the common explanation was that he didn't think he could get himself into a realistic spot on the Likud candidates list, and preferred to quit while he was ahead.

In a government dedicated to making life easier for Business, Kahlon stood out as champion of the economic underdog. He was behind a bill to reduce electricity charges for poor families, and headed an inquiry into the impenetrable maze of Israeli bank fees. But he became an overnight minor messiah last year, when he issued permits to operators of virtual cellular phone services, creating real competition and bringing down rates by as much as 75%.

As Israelis erupted in the summer of 2011 with the "Cottage Cheese Protests," occupying a section of gentrified South Tel Aviv along Sderot Rothschild, Kahlon, one of seven children of a family of oriental Jews, became Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's poster child for economic equality and bootstrapping innovation. Netanyahu famously told his cabinet ministers: "Be like Kahlon," in finding inspired solutions to the economic travails of a large segment of Israeli society.
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