Kahlon said to tell Netanyahu he won’t agree to Bennett as defense chief

15 November 2018, 8:34 pm

Edit

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon reportedly tells Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this evening that he would not allow Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the Jewish Home party, to be appointed defense minister.

Bennett has demanded the defense portfolio since Avigdor Liberman announced yesterday he was resigning from the post, and threatened to leave the government if he was denied it by Netanyahu. Bennett’s departure would push Netanyahu’s coalition below the 61-seat threshold required to sustain a government, likely sending the nation to elections.

But Kahlon, too, has the power to send the country to elections by withdrawing his Kulanu party from the coalition.