Popular ex-Likud minister makes comeback amid talk of early election

A popular former Likud minister has announced a comeback at the head of a new party amid speculation that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is about to call early elections.

Moshe Kahlon, who resigned as communications minister in October 2012, three months before the last general election, held a founding meeting attended by 350 supporters at a seaside hotel on Thursday night.

“There is not one person here who does not want reform of the diplomatic situation and our relations with the world,” Kahlon, formerly of Netanyahu’s Likud party, told the gathering.

“There is no one here who does not want social reform.”

Neither the party’s name, nor details of its likely candidates, were given.

Kahlon previously served as welfare minister, and as communications minister in the last Netanyahu government. He has been credited with introducing more competition to the cellular communications market, bringing about a sharp reduction in the prices of cellular service packages.

Haaretz reported in August that Kahlon intended to present his team two months before the next general election, theoretically due in November 2017.

He indicated last month that he would start a new political party focused on reducing the cost of living in Israel.

The burgeoning cost of living has been a hot topic in Israel for years, culminating in massive protests in 2011 that saw hundreds of thousands camp out in city streets throughout the country, demanding that the government take action to make things such as food and housing more affordable. Many who emigrate from Israel point to the cost of living as a key factor in their decision.

“My friends and I intend to create a new political framework that will truly deal with the issues… and which are close to many people,” Kahlon said at a Tel Aviv business conference in October. “It will be, God willing, when there are elections.”

Before the Knesset elections of January 2013, Kahlon announced that he would be taking a break from politics, sparking persistent reports that he was set to start his own party.

A July Knesset Channel poll showed a theoretical Kahlon party garnering six seats if elections were held then, while some more recent polls have shown him hovering around as many as 10 Knesset seats.

Controversial bill

Amid growing signs of discontent in the current coalition over the controversial “Jewish state” bill, Netanyahu is reportedly set to decide on whether to call for early elections by Monday

Netanyahu might use a preliminary parliamentary reading on Wednesday of the bill as a platform to launch his election campaign, Haaretz reported.

The bill, which would enshrine Israel’s character as a Jewish state in Israel’s de facto constitution, has come under harsh criticism from Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and the leader of the Yesh Atid party, Finance Minister Yair Lapid, as well as opposition lawmakers, President Reuven Rivlin and his predecessor Shimon Peres.

Critics say the law is undemocratic to Israel’s Arab and other minority populations. A stormy cabinet meeting on the bill at the beginning of the week saw Livni accuse Netanyahu of backing the legislation in order to try and pry apart the coalition so that he can call elections.

Netanyahu has vowed to push the measure through, saying that it would guarantee equal rights for the country’s citizens and put Israel’s democratic and Jewish characters on equal footing.

The PM has presented 14 “principles” — a two-page articulation of the guiding principles for the as-yet unsubmitted government version of the nation-state bill — as a softened version to the more “right-wing” versions submitted by MKs Ze’ev Elkin, Yariv Levin, Robert Ilatov and Ayelet Shaked.

But both Livni and Lapid have hinted that they may be willing to go to early elections over the issue.

‘Changed circumstances’

Netanyahu said that since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948 circumstances had changed, and it was necessary to bolster its character with legislation.

“When [David] Ben-Gurion proclaimed the establishment of the state of Israel, the need to enact basic laws to ensure its Jewish and democratic nature was not seen,” he said at a graveside memorial ceremony for Israel’s first prime minister this week.

“Now there are those who challenge the Jewish character of the state of Israel — and many are doing so — and therefore there is a need to defend this character with the Nation State bill.”

Political analysts say that Netanyahu’s support for the bill is a gesture to Likud hardliners ahead of party primaries in January.

A poll published on Thursday night by Israeli financial daily Globes said Likud has been losing popularity in recent months, and the paper advised the party to “go for an early election, and quickly”.

Asked by pollster Rafi Smith which party they would vote for if an election were held now, the answers predicted that Likud would win 23 seats in the 120-member Knesset, down from the 24 it scored in an October survey but dramatically down from 31 in a July Globes poll.

Likud currently holds 18 seats.

The poll, which predicted that Kahlon’s new party would win nine seats, did not give the number of respondents or the margin of error.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report