Has Israel's finance minister lost his fans?
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon's supporters are disappointed, as they believed he would fight for the rule of law and the new public broadcasting corporation but now see him abandoning political battles that might mark him as a leftist, guided primarily by political survival.
Two highly publicized demonstrations took place in less than one mid-November week outside the new apartment block in Haifa, where Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon lives. The homes of Israel’s finance ministers have always been a popular target for demonstrations, and the current one is no exception. What distinguishes Kahlon is that these demonstrations do not focus on budgetary or economic issues. They are about the rule of law (Kahlon is accused of not defending it) and about the prime minister’s predatory actions concerning the media (that Kahlon now seems to be going along with).
On the evening of Nov. 15, dozens of would-be employees of the new public broadcasting corporation gathered outside Kahlon's home. They came to protest him stepping back from his promise to protect them from Netanyahu’s efforts to shut down the nascent corporation. The staff got the news that afternoon, while the finance minister attended a journalism conference in Eilat. While speaking on a panel, he announced that public broadcasting could be maintained through the old Israel Broadcasting Authority, which until now was slated for closure.
