I think this qualifies for the weirdest or strangest campaign issue, or maybe attack, to come up so far..

Minister Moshe Kachlon attacked Lihi Lapid, Yair Lapid's wife. His attack is regarding her participation in "hafrashat challa" events - she famously hosted one such event during the last election campaign in 2015.

I have seen in the news here and there about other such events Lapid participated in, but I have not paid attention closely to it and do not know how frequently or infrequently she does these things. I do not even know why it came up now - maybe she announced participation in another hafrashat challa event, I don't know.

Anyways, Moshe Kachlon criticized her saying she does not even know  what the mitzva is and does not know what she is doing. Kachlon added "my mother did all the mitzvot, such as hafrashat challa - I dont know if Lihi Lapid understands anything about what she is doing, but my mother understood".
source: Kikar

Huh?

I have no idea if Lihi Lapid understands what she is doing or not. I also do not care. I also do not care if Mrs Momma Kachlon understood what she was doing or not. I have no idea what this about or why it came up or what Kachlon wants to get out of it. It sounds like one of those fights common among 9 year old kids - my dad is stronger than your dad..

Definitely one of the weirdest campaign issues to come up so far

כל מי שיעלה מחירים לציבור הצרכנים, שלא בצדק, יתחרט על כך במהרה.

בכל מקום שתהיה עליית מחירים לא מוצדקת, נפחית מכסים ונגדיל את התחרות בשוק, בדיוק כפי שעשינו עד היום.

— משה כחלון - Moshe Kahlon (@KahlonMoshe) December 15, 2018

בשבוע הבא יפגשו החכים החרדים עם כחלון ויבקשו פתרון למצוקת הדיור החרדית. אפשר לחשוב שבמגזר הכללי הוא מצא פתרון. כמו לבקש תרומות מפושט רגל

— יעקב ריבלין (@arivlin1) November 28, 2016

Haredi journalist Yaakov Rivlin says that next week the Haredi MKs will be meeting with Kachlon and will demand a solution to the Haredi housig crisis. One might think that he has already found a solution for the housing crisis of the general public. This is like asking for donations from someone who went bankrupt.

MK Yair Lapid has come out against the "3rd apartment tax" of Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon. Lapid's reasoning to oppose it is, as he said, that this tax will cause some apartment owner in Dimona with 3 small apartments to pay this tax while a wealthy owner of a 30 million shekel apartment in Tel Aviv won't have to pay any tax. And Moshe Kahlon is upset about Lapid's opposition and has called him out for it.
source: Behadrei and Kikar

This logic comparing the two is faulty because the 30million shekel apartment owner might also own other apartments and also have to pay tax. And the Dimona guy won't have to pay very much tax on a small apartment that is not worth all that much.

But that is not the main point I want to make. And that is, Yair Lapid is mostly irrelevant. He is a member of the opposition and has no influence on any of the coalition members. Some coalition members consider him an enemy and will not follow him at all, while others see him as a rival trying to take votes.

Yair Lapid can oppose any coalition-proposed law he wants, and that is even part of his job being in the opposition, but he has almost no influence and has no ability to block this law from happening, if the coalition wants to pass it.

So, when Moshe Kahlon chooses to attack Lapid for his opposition to the tax, it is disingenuous, and even a bit wily. Kahlon is a smart guy. Kahlon knows that Lapid's opposition is meaningless. He chose to attack Lapid instead of the MKs in his coalition who are even more vocally opposed to the tax, for very good reasons:
1. attacking coalition members could put the coalition at risk
2. By pitting Lapid as the opponent to the tax, he is putting the Haredi MKs, the more problematic (for Kahlon) opponents to the law, into a difficult situation - if they continue to oppose it, they are basically taking a line with Lapid - something they are averse to doing. Kahlon, by pitting Lapid as the main opponent, might be trying to pressure the Haredi MKs to remove their opposition to the law.

Kahlon is a smart guy. I can't wait to see if his strategy works or not.

We need to send this government on vacation. Send them out, urgently, before we have to institutionalize them, the whole government

  -- Minister of Finance Moshe Kachlon, frustrated after days of fighting and verbal spats between Likud and Habayit Hayehudi MKs and Ministers..

great interview. Kachlon was funny, attacked back, and took some hits gracefully...

this session happened a month ago but the Knesset account just uploaded it to their channel

When he gets asked about the housing crisis and the lack of solutions for the Haredim, he mentions Bet Shemesh (during two different questions). After answering about other solutions, he jokes that they should say tehillim.

I like these sessions.

The talk in some of the weekend papers, and all over the Haredi radio stations this morning, was about the possibility of lowering the budgets allocated for Haredi demands.

With the new budget being prepared, the Finance Minister is saying that the budgets designated for the Haredi sector, as per the coalition agreements, are too high and he refuses to increase the deficit. Allowing the budget promises to remain as they are will not allow him to benefit the broader public with reforms, but he would have to raise taxes. The Haredi parties are obviously standing their ground and insisting their agreements be fulfilled as promised.

I have to say, I am with the Haredi parties on this.

All the agreements were approved by the Finance Ministry. To throw the blame for budget problems on the Haredi parties now is unreasonable and deceptive. Why did they approve it a few months ago and now feel they have to cut it? Agreements should be honored. Perhaps Netanyahu should not have been so quick to agree to everything they demanded, and perhaps the Finance Ministry shouldn't have been so willing to approve the agreements in advance. Once agreed to, they should be honored.

We started a process of lessening demand by increasing the purchase tax.  We were criticized for it, but I am at peace with our process. It cannot be that someone with means can buy 4 apartments while young couples are distanced from being able to buy apartments. I said to the investors, who says you need to diminish the apartments available for young couples? Everybody has to take others into account.. some people have 2, 3 or 4 or even more apartments. One cannot consume the entire world. We have to take into consideration our children so we made the decision to chase investors away from the market.

  -- Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon

sounds strange for a Finance Minister to make a decision, and be proud of it, to chase away investors.

I am no economist, but it seems to me that Kahlon's plan that will meddle with the free market is a bad idea and will backfire.

Kahlon announced his first law proposal being the "Fair Rent Law". Kahlon is focusing on trying to bring housing costs down, and with this bill he is focusing on rental prices.

The idea of Kahlon's proposal is that rental prices would be standardized, and landlords would be limited in their ability to raise rent - once a renter signs on an apartment, the landlord will not be allowed to raise the rent for a period of three to five years, though the rent could increase as it would be tied so some housing market index, or a flat 2% per year.

It seems to me, in my non-expert opinion, that this is meddling in the free market. If landlords cannot charge the rent they want, and cannot raise rents when values go up, when supply is down and when demand is high, they won't invest in real estate.

Perhaps landlords will decide to sell their apartments, with their rental income limited, and that will flood the housing market and bring prices down. Maybe that is really behind Kahlon's plan.

I think the market should dictate what landlords can charge. If a landlord charges too much, he wont find a renter.

I have no problem with his ideas of taxing rental income from the first shekel. I don't see why I need to pay taxes on my income from the first shekel but landlords do not need to. So I am fine with that. They should pay taxes on their income like everybody else. That is not meddling i the market.

Telling landlords they cannot raise the prices, despite an apartment increasing in value due to local market forces seems unfair to the landlord.

Kahlon should increase the number of public housing units available where the government can establish rent control. I don't think he should meddle and control rental prices in the private market.

what do you think?

The Hiddush organization is upset with the fact that it looks like Moshe Gafni of UTJ will be appointed to head the Knesset Finance Committee, rather than one of Moshe Kahlon's people.

I am not sure why some people get upset with whatever the Haredi parties are offered to join the coalition. No matter what they want it is considered outrageous demands, extortion, knavery... and whatever they are offered is called political bribery and corruption.,

The Haredi parties represent a portion of the population. I don't like the system that gives unbalanced power to narrow interest parties, but as long as that is the system, the Haredi parties are no more and no less deserving of any given position than any other political party. There is no reason UTJ demanding the head of the committee is extortion but Kahlon demanding it is perfectly ok.

Back to Hiddush...

Hiddush has published the results of some survey they conducted. According to Hiddush, 87% of the non-Haredi public wants Moshe Kahlon to have the position of head of Finance Committee, while only 13% want Moshe Gafni to have the position.

a. why only poll the non-haredi public? is the Haredi public not part of Israel? Are they not citizens of Israel? Does their opinion not matter? Is the non-haredi public any less biased towards a non-haredi person versus a haredi person than the haredi public is biased to a haredi person versus a non-haredi person?
why is this a legitimate survey? Why do these results bear any significance? If I ask only Druze people, they will surely overwhelmingly choose a Druze candidate for any given position. Only women? Most likely they will choose the female candidate. Only secular? Most likely they will choose the secular candidate? Only dati leumi? They will choose the DL candidate. Only Haredi? They will choose the Haredi candidate.

Not only do I ask why is it legitimate, but it is grossly insulting? Why does one part of society have more of a say than any other part of society? Hiddush is almost saying the same thing Amir Chetzroni said.

The survey published by Hiddush is meaningless because it is biased to the result they wanted.

b. I think by now we have learned the value of polls and surveys. This survey is most likely brought to you by the same people who spent the last 4 months polling the elections. Last week we saw exactly how reliable and unbiased their numbers are.

Moshe Kachlon introducing his new party... personally I think he has been a bit disappointing. He has tried to form his party in a way that makes everyone happy, rather than with a specific identity. And he came out with a boring and uninspiring party. Except for Michael Oren, the rest are just dull and uninspiring. And I think that is reflected in the polls which have not been kind to Kachlon despite initial optimism.

Moshe Kachlon's new political party, Kulanu, is so far the darling of this election season. And he has not yet even announced his list of candidates running with him in the party.

Kachlon is trying to sign up people who have affected the amrkets the way he did, and he would be running on a platform of disrupting the markets to bring prices and cost of living down.

According to INN, Kachlon is targeting people like Itzik Alrov, a haredi man from Bnei Braq who sparked the cottage cheese protest, Rami Levy, the supermarket guy who shook up the market when he started selling chicken for a  shekel, and Avi Katz of Coffix fame who slashed the price of a cup of coffee to 5 nis.

Chicken, cottage cheese and coffee.

only in politics is meat and milk kosher...

If Moshe Kachlon is so smart and talented, and I think he probably is, along with charismatic and dynamic with leadership abilities, why is he starting a new party?

I mean, doesn't he see how all these new parties were basically one-time wonders and then faded into obscurity? even the most successful of them all, Kadima, barely made it through two elections.. why does he think his party will be any different? He should have stayed with the Likud.

The worst part of it is that a guy like Kachlon, and the big names who I am sure will be on his list, will soon fade into obscurity just like those all before him, and that would be such a loss to the political system.

Besides for being a good appointment, besides for clearly being an election ploy, I don't get how he can legally fill this appointment at this stage. 2 days before the elections? Does that mean the appointment is for 2 days only? If Likud does not form the next government, theoretically, this appointment will be reversed. Bibi should have done this a month ago, or 3 months ago, or else wait until after the elections.

Banking reforms are the next thing we need to deal with, after the reforms we implemented in the cellular and television markets.The weak have no power to argue, to scream and to influence. The strong are the ones who get the cheapest prices..... The banks profit a billion shekels every quarter. This money comes from the interest that the public pays. If they profit 100 million, would that not be enough? This money comes from you, and from your parents, and not justly. We see now in the banks that if someone has money he gets interest rates of 1.5%, and if he does not he gets rates of 6% - 7%...
We can do this differently. In the past 60 years no new bank has opened up in Israel, no competition has been created, this is very troubling and is not understandable to me. By bringing in more banks, we will pay lower interest rates and lower commissions. The same is true with the food industry and with every aspect of our lives..

 -- Minister of Communications and Minister of Social Services Moshe Kachlon

If Kachlon is eyeing the banking industry for the next sages of reforms, does that mean he is looking for either a ministerial appointment or some other form of being appointed to implement reforms? Perhaps this means his time-out from politics does not mean a time-out from working for the public.

I don't pay attention to polls, especially this early in an election season. They are wildly inaccurate even in the best of times, let alone now when the various parties are only just starting to campaign. Despite that, every now and then some interesting point shows up in the information.

Someone floated a suggestion that Moshe Kachlon should open his own political party focusing on social issues and run in the upcoming elections. Immediately the pollsters went out to see how much strength such a party would garner.

Now, I heard Moshe Kachlon on the radio saying he has no idea where that idea came from, he is not involved in it, he has committed to supporting the Likud, just a few days ago he directed the Likud convention to discuss and decide on the unified list with Yisrael Beiteinu, and that he is not opening a new party.

Despite his denial, rumors persist and the polls are the polls. It turns out that at this point, the polls predict that if Kachlon would open a party and run, he would win 20 mandates. Very nice.

(side not... I think if Kachlon chose to run a new party, he would likely seriously hurt the Likud. One point I add is that those talking about such a poll keep repeating that Kachlon would get 20 seats if he formed a centrist party. I don't know why they assume it would automatically be centrist. Moshe Kachlon is generally, on security and Land of Israel issues, considered to be on the Right side of the Likud, not closer to the Center..)

The interesting thing is what I heard on the radio this morning. The pollsters have taken it further and have new information for us. If Kachlon would open this party, it would get 20 mandates. if he would add Tzippi Livni to his list, they would get 26 mandates!

Tzippi Livni is like the Lebron James of Israeli politics. She is [considered] a superstar with no home. the pollsters have placed her with the Labor party, with Ehud Olmert in a new party, with Yair Lapid, with Ehud Olmert in Kadima, a new centrist party of her own, and now with Moshe Kachlon's potential party. The only arty I havent seen her associated with [yet] is Likud Beiteinu. I'd like to see polls showing what would happen if she went back that way.

It seems that Tzippi Livni has no ideals or path of her own and can pretty much fit in anywhere...




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The most interesting response to Moshe Kachlon's announcement was that by MK Carmel Shama-HaKohen. MK Shama HaKohen posted to his Facebook status an update calling on the public to flood Moshe Kachlon's private phone number with sms messages calling upon him to return, and if he would receive 100,000 such messages, there is no way he would be able to remain indifferent.



While the sentiment is appreciated, he wants the public to call upon Kachlon and make it difficult for him to ignore the public, I think publicizing his phone number like that was inappropriate. Kachlon probably had the number shut down right away after he started to receive the first few messages, but still...

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So what if I am leaving. I don't understand. What happened? ...  I said a while ago that I intend to leave. I said ti to a number of people recently. I told the Prime Minister 3 years ago that this would be my last term. I also said this in interviews to the media. For three years I have been saying that at the end of this term i would leave. People just don't believe politicians. I said I would bring down the costs of cellular usage, and they did not believe me. Every time it is a surprise. But I announced previously that i would be leaving at the end of this term, and that is precisely what I am doing...
I did what I did and that's it. We move on. There is no need to stick to the chair and to stick to a position.... so what if I am leaving? They say I am excellent, but I dont understand why. I did a job. Very nice, with a lot of satisfaction, with intersting tasks. I am very complete with my finishing this. So it should be in life. I have been here 10-12 years. How much is possible?

  -- Minister of Communications, Minister of Social and Welfare Services Moshe Kachlon, responding to the responses about his announcement of retirement

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Quote Of The Day

The settlement report of the Supreme Court Justice is a very important updated report that was written after very thorough work. In my opinion, the new report should be incorporated and its conclusions regarding settlement in Judea and Samaria should be accepted. Adoption of those conclusions will strengthen the settlement activity.

  -- Minister Moshe Kachlon
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