Background
Moshe Kahlon was born in the modest Givat Olga neighborhood of Hadera. His father worked in construction.
Moshe Kahlon was born in the modest Givat Olga neighborhood of Hadera. His father worked in construction.
He later studied political science and general studies at the University of Haifa, receiving a Bachelor"s degree before going on to gain a Bachelor of Laws from the Netanya Academic College. He also studied in 2013 at the advanced management program at Harvard University.
He heads the Kulanu party, which he established in November 2014. Since 2015 he has been Minister of Finance in the Netanyahu IV cabinet. He is known for championing socioeconomic issues like the eradication of poverty and income inequality.
He was the fifth of seven children born to Libyan Jewish parents who had immigrated from Tripoli.
He served in the Israel Defense Forces from 1978 to 1986, in the Ordnance Corps. After completing his army service he started a business of importing car appliances.
Kahlon was first elected to the Knesset in the 2003 elections, and was appointed Deputy Speaker of the Knesset. He retained his seat again in the 2009 elections after being placed sixth on the Likud list, and was appointed Minister of Communications on 31 March.
In the Knesset, he worked to pass a bill to reduce electricity charges for poor families and headed an inquiry into bank fees.
Kahlon was also credited with leading the "Cellular Revolution", a set of moves that allowed new competitors to enter the cellular communications market in Israel, including Golan Telecom. This drastically reduced cellular communications prices in the market. On 19 January 2011, he was appointed Minister of Welfare & Social Services after the resignation of Isaac Herzog.
Kahlon announced he would be taking a break from politics, and did not run in the 2013 Knesset elections.
lieutenant was subsequently reported that Kahlon would initiate a new party to run in the next Israeli legislative election. Possible running-mates were reported to include Yoav Galant and Meir Dagan.
In the run up to the 2006 elections, he surprisingly won third place on Likud"s list in the party"s primaries. In response to reports that he was going to form a new political party, Kahlon announced on 3 November 2013 that he would not. In April 2014, after a period of silence, Kahlon announced in an interview with the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth his intention to return to politics "imminently", but that he had not decided on a "framework" for his return.
In the same interview, he criticised the socio-economic and diplomatic policies of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding to speculation that he would attempt to run against Netanyahu in the future elections. In 2014, he indeed founded a new political party, the Kulanu party, ahead of the expected March 2015 elections.