Benjamin Netanyahu will meet a second time with his minister of finance to stave off early elections.
By David Isaac, World Israel News
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet a second time with Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon on Sunday evening in one last attempt to stave off early elections.
Kahlon, who is also the head of the Kulanu Party, which represents 10 seats in the governing coalition, said Thursday that the government should go to elections as soon as possible, following Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman’s resignation on Wednesday.
Netanyahu will try to convince Kahlon to reverse his position and support the continuation of the coalition government, who ruling majority has been reduced to a slender 61 seats of 120 in Israel’s parliament.
Kahlon and Naftali Bennett, education minister and head of the Jewish Home Party, spoke yesterday and agreed that if Netanyahu can’t find a creative solution to the crisis today, they will vote on Wednesday for dissolving the Knesset, Army Radio reported Sunday.
Netanyahu cancelled two meetings scheduled for today in order to conduct negotiations designed to prevent an early end to his government coalition, cobbled together from five parties, including his own Likud Party.
The prime minister appeared to hang responsibility for keeping the coalition together on Kahlon, tweeting Saturday that he would meet with Kahlon today: “In one last attempt to convince him not to bring down the government. If the Kulanu faction won’t bring down the government — there’s a government. … All the members of the Likud faction are interested in continuing to serve the state another full year, until the end of the term in November 2019.”
Early reports said that Kahlon’s opposition to Bennett’s candidacy for defense minister is the reason the coalition is in crisis, but Kahlon denied those reports, saying he has no problem with Bennett serving in the position. “Anyone Netanyahu decides upon for the position of defense minister is acceptable to me,” Kahlon said.
In an interview with Meet the Press on Israel’s Channel 13, Kahlon also denied that he was motivated by personal political reasons, citing his concerns for Israel’s economy.
Regarding the coming meeting with Netanyahu and his chances to continue in the government, Kahlon said that “if he pulls a rabbit out of a hat, we’ll see. In the meantime, I haven’t seen a rabbit or a hat.”
The meeting between Netanyahu and Kahlon is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
本杰明内塔尼亚胡将与他的财政部长第二次会面，以避免提前选举。
世界以色列新闻大卫艾萨克
以色列总理本雅明内塔尼亚胡将于周日晚上与财政部长摩西·卡赫隆第二次会面，最后一次试图避免提前选举。
Kahlon，也是执政联盟10个席位的Kulanu党的负责人，周四表示政府应该尽快参加选举，此前国防部长阿维格多利伯曼周三辞职。
内塔尼亚胡将试图说服Kahlon扭转其立场并支持联合政府的继续，联合政府在以色列议会中将多数票数减少到120个席位。
教育部长兼犹太家庭党团长Kahlon和Naftali Bennett昨天发表讲话并同意，如果内塔尼亚胡今天无法找到解决危机的创造性解决方案，他们将于周三投票决定解散以色列议会。
内塔尼亚胡取消了今天举行的两次会议，以便进行旨在防止早日结束其政府联盟的谈判，这些谈判是由包括他自己的利库德集团在内的五方共同拼凑而成的。
这位总理似乎有责任将联盟保持在Kahlon上，星期六在推特上说他今天会与Kahlon会面：“最后一次试图说服他不要摧毁政府。如果库拉努派不会打倒政府 – 那就是政府。 ……利库德集团的所有成员都有兴趣继续为该州服务另一整年，直到2019年11月任期结束。“
早期的报道说，Kahlon反对Bennett的国防部长候选人是联盟陷入危机的原因，但Kahlon否认了这些报道，称他对Bennett担任该职位没有任何问题。 “任何内塔尼亚胡决定担任国防部长的职位对我来说都是可以接受的，”卡赫隆说。
在接受以色列13频道会见新闻界采访时，Kahlon还否认他出于个人政治原因，并引用他对以色列经济的担忧。
关于即将与内塔尼亚胡举行的会谈以及他继续参加政府的机会，Kahlon说“如果他从帽子里拔出一只兔子，我们会看到。与此同时，我还没有见过兔子或帽子。“
内塔尼亚胡和卡赫隆之间的会议定于下午6:30举行。星期日。