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Kahlon aligns with Regev with eye toward early Israeli elections

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has signed on to Culture Minister Miri Regev’s racist agenda against Israel’s Arab citizens not because of his ideology but in cynical preparation for early elections.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon attend a ceremony for the signing of a housing agreement in Sderot, Israel April 9, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen - RC1C2300B0A0
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (L) and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon attend a ceremony for the signing of a housing agreement, Sderot, Israel, April 9, 2018. — REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon and Culture Minister Miri Regev's joint Sept. 20 statement on amending the law that funds Israel’s culture and arts was not coincidental, nor was there anything ideological about it. The amendment will grant the Ministry of Culture the same authority that the Finance Ministry now has to withhold budgets from institutions considered offensive to the state’s values and symbols. 

The key question, of course, is the timing. Why did the finance minister decide just now to support Regev’s racist agenda against the country’s Arab citizens? Over the last few months, his office had effectively blocked all Regev’s requests to defund cultural institutions deemed subversive.

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