Kahlon says he doesn’t need ‘lessons in compassion’ from PM

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon promises the government will find a solution for the Israel Broadcasting Authority employees who are set to be laid off with the new public broadcaster set to air.

Amid an escalating coalition crisis over the new public broadcaster, Kahlon says he doesn’t need “lessons in compassion” from anyone, in an apparent reference to Netanyahu.

Netanyahu, who has long sought to scrap the new broadcaster and revive the IBA — which his own Likud government voted to shutter in favor of the new entity — on Saturday night reneged on a deal that would have seen the new corporation go live on April 30, as planned. The prime minister said he “changed his mind” after meeting with IBA employees.

If Kahlon refuses to scrap the new broadcaster, Netanyahu was reported to have told Likud ministers at his home on Saturday, “we’ll go to elections.” In the elections, he further reportedly said, Kahlon’s Kulanu would be wiped off the political map, and then he would pass legislation to cancel the new corporation.

Speaking alongside Education Minister Naftali Bennett in Tel Aviv, Kahlon vowed the IBA employees would be compensated and proposed “massive” integration of the workers in the new corporation. He did not, however, address Netanyahu’s warnings or suggest the new broadcaster would not start broadcasting by the launch date.

“Right now there are problems and unfortunately the IBA workers, whose case was not dealt with, fell between the cracks,” he says. “I don’t need lessons in compassion from anyone.”

“Others did not take responsibility. We will take responsibility,” he says.