Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has a highly developed sense of smell, especially when it comes to the public’s mood over socioeconomic affairs. Sometimes he can sniff it out even before it rises to the surface.
That’s what happened in 2009, right after he was appointed communications minister. He took on the cell phone companies, which were charging exorbitant prices, and despite enormous pressure was able to open the market to competition and bring prices down. Back then, two years before the social protests erupted in the summer of 2011, the sentiments he picked up on foreshadowed the emerging rage among the middle class over the cost of living that later on brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets.