Kahlon's election promise blunder
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon won 10 Knesset seats after promising to dismantle monopolies and share more equally natural resources, but this promise is now questioned in view of his friendship with a leading Israeli businessman.
Whoever missed the interview during the election campaign where Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon promised to deal with the gas monopoly despite his friendship with Kobi Maimon, one of the owners of the gas company Isramco, surely couldn’t miss it in the last few days. Kahlon’s answer has been broadcast nonstop since May 26, when he backed out of the promise and announced that he cannot deal with the issue because of his ties to Maimon.
In a conversation with Al-Monitor, a person close to Kahlon, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the original promise was made as a legitimate campaign calculation, and breaking it does not overstep the rules of the political game. He said when Kahlon was asked whether he’d deal with the natural gas situation — one of the issues most important to Israel’s economy — he had no choice but to answer decisively that he would deal with it fully.
