Ilan Ben Zion is an AFP reporter and a former news editor at The Times of Israel.
Likud members applaud resigning Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon at a Likud convention held in Tel Aviv on October 17. (photo credit: Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)
Resigning Communications Minister Moshe Kahlon on Wednesday bade the Likud party farewell to raucous applause at the Central Committee convention in Tel Aviv as the party voted in favor of holding primaries to select its Knesset list on November 25.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was notably absent from the assembly of the party’s membership, the first such confab since elections were approved for January 22 by the Knesset on Monday night.
The last meeting, in May, saw Netanyahu come under verbal attack by the party’s right flank, led by Moshe Feiglin.
Addressing the crowd, Kahlon thanked the Likud party members for their backing and said he would continue to support Likud despite his decision to retire from political life.
Minister of Welfare and Social Services Moshe Kahlon (photo credit: Gili Yaari/Flash90)
“I thank you for sending me to represent you. I was your soldier, a soldier of the neighborhoods,” Kahlon said. “I always represented the middle class, those who lack and wish to change their fortune. I grew up in a Likud with social values.”
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Members of the crowd rose and interrupted his farewell speech, chanting, “Moshe, king of Israel, stay, stay!”
The Labor party also met Wednesday and agreed to hold primaries on November 27.
Early polls show Likud dominating the upcoming elections, with Labor far behind in second.
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