As he sat listening to his future Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon on the evening of April 29, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s body language relayed a certain sense of impatience. After 43 days of focused and often shrewd negotiations with the chairman of the Kulanu Party, the two men announced that their parties would be signing a coalition agreement. Netanyahu sat beside Kahlon, his hands resting on the table and his fingers drumming rhythmically without him even noticing it. Meanwhile, Kahlon listed all of his achievements so far. There were many, and they were respectable.
Kahlon is hardly a great orator. Netanyahu and Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid are both a thousand times better than him. Nevertheless, when anyone has such an impressive list of achievements, it is easy to see that he has the upper hand, even if his style of speech is laconic and boring.