Kulanu said to oppose death penalty for terrorists

A senior member of Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu party reportedly says his party will oppose an amendment to Israel’s penal code that would allow the sentencing of terrorists to death.

The death penalty has been a key demand of presumptive defense minister Avigdor Liberman in talks to bring his Yisrael Beytenu party into the coalition.

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon arrives at the weekly cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister Office in Jerusalem on Sunday, May 22, 2016 (Emil Salman/POOL)

“The defense establishment is unanimous in its assessment that it’s a bad idea that contributes neither to the war on terror nor to Israel’s security,” a senior Kulanu official is quoted by the Ynet news site as saying. “It is an inappropriate idea from both the moral and practical standpoints.

“Any attempt at irresponsible behavior in the cabinet and Knesset will come up against the fortified wall of the Kulanu party and its ten members,” the official adds, likely alluding to the fact that even with Beytenu’s five MKs, losing Kulanu would likely spell the end of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government.