Lead economic adviser to Netanyahu set to resign

National Economic Council head Eugene Kandel has informed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he will be resigning from his position in the near future.

As head of the council, Kandel was one of the main authors of the natural gas agreement that is currently in the headlines. Sources close to Kandel have stressed that his resignation is unrelated to the controversy surrounding the deal.

It is currently unknown whether Kandel plans to resume his academic career or pursue a career in the private sector.

Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz’s former adviser Avi Simhon has been mentioned as a possible successor to Kandel.

Kandel has served as the government’s chief economic adviser since 2009, when he took over from Manuel Trachtenberg (now a Knesset member for the opposition Zionist Union party), who established the National Economic Council in 2006.

The council was founded in order to provide the prime minister and the government with informed and professional assistance for reaching critical decisions in the economic arena.

Recently, the council has come under fire from the attorney general for working almost exclusively with the prime minister, rather than fulfilling its duty to the cabinet as a whole. Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein urged the prime minister to assess the activities, efficiency and achievements of the council and present his findings to the cabinet in order to come to a decision regarding the future of the advisory body.

Kandel, born Evgeni Kandel in Moscow, immigrated to Israel along with his family in 1977, having been denied the right to do so for four years. He studied at both the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (BA and MA) and the University of Chicago (MBA and PhD).

As the leading adviser on economic matters in the government, Kandel has been involved in the drafting of every budget and participated in every financial forum in the Knesset since 2009.