Kahlon says no phone calls with Netanyahu in months
Indicating a decline in relations, finance minister says he was surprised, disillusioned by coalition crisis over new public broadcaster

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on Saturday indicated his relationship with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had deteriorated, saying the two had not spoken on the phone in six months.
However, the Kulanu party leader also insisted there was no breakdown of communication between the two coalition partners, explaining that they regularly met at cabinet meetings and other government forums.
The finance minister told Channel 2’s “Meet the Press” that he had been somewhat disillusioned by the coalition crisis that had erupted over the new public broadcasting cooperation — which nearly led the country to early elections.
“I work with the prime minister and we have a lot to get done together,” Kahlon said. “But there’s no question that the broadcaster issue was cumbersome for me.
“I’ve been finance minister for two years and I think we’ve boosted the economy, found [housing] solutions for young couples, advanced the ‘Net Family’ plan [to provide tax benefits for parents of young children],” Kahlon recounted. “And then the broadcaster issue came along and suddenly a matter I felt was minor almost led us to elections.”
Kahlon said he subsequently came to believe that the economy’s best interests were not necessarily the deciding factor for Israel’s leaders. “I naively thought that the most important thing was to help young couples with 2-3 children. But I saw how we almost went to elections and now I have a different mindset.

“I know elections can come at any moment and there doesn’t need to be a special reason.”
Kahlon’s interview confirmed reports over the past several months that his relationship with Netanyahu had soured.
In March, under pressure from Netanyahu, Kahlon agreed to a deal that would strip the new public broadcaster Kan of its news division and create a separate broadcast entity to deal with all current affairs offerings.
However, the issue is currently tied up in the High Court of Justice. Pending a final ruling, Kan was launched in May with its centerpiece news division.
Kahlon and Netanyahu has some heated arguments as the crisis unfolded in March. At the time, Channel 2 and Channel 10 reported that in one conversation during their negotiations before the agreement, Netanyahu told Kahlon: “I went to elections over the Israel Hayom bill. I am not afraid to do so again over the broadcaster. You know the numbers, in the polls, over what could happen.”
Netanyahu was referring to his decision two years ago to dissolve the government and call elections over his coalition members’ dissent regarding the Israel Hayom bill, which would have curtailed the distribution of the free Sheldon Adelson-owned newspaper that is largely supportive of the prime minister. That legislation, which was never approved, is currently at the center of one of the investigations into the prime minister, who allegedly offered to help pass the bill in a quid pro quo deal with Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes.
In the transcript released in March, Kahlon shot back at the prime minister that his threat to calls elections “doesn’t scare me. My party can lose or gain two or three mandates, but you will not return to this seat.”