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Kahlon says Herzog probe ended talks on unity government
Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon told a conference yesterday that the corruption investigation announced last week against Zionist Union head Isaac Herzog, stymied talks to form a unity government.
Speaking to the Israel Bar Association conference, Kahlon said that, “The prime minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] was prepared to and wanted” to bring Zionist Union, the largest opposition faction, into the government. However, “the recent events distanced him from that,” explaining that “When the investigation was made public they [the Zionist Union] were about to join the government.”
Herzog was Netanyahu’s main rival during last year’s general election and Zionist Union is the second largest faction in the Knesset, comprised of the Labour Party and Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Party. Last week it was announced that a probe had been launched into possible funding irregularities surrounding Herzog’s campaign for the Labour Party leadership in 2013, in which he defeated Shelly Yachimovich. He has said that he will cooperate fully with the investigation, describing the allegations as “delusional political muckraking.”
Kulanu leader Kahlon, who has long been a proponent of a unity government, claimed yesterday, “It turned out that Herzog and Netanyahu were holding talks on joining the government and the investigation just distanced it.” He added, “My political assessment is that the first party that needs to join the coalition is Labour [Zionist Union].” Recent polls have indicated that Zionist Union is losing support at the expense of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid. Meanwhile, a unity government would also provide Netanyahu with greater flexibility, as his current coalition enjoys a razor thin one-seat majority.
Nonetheless, both the Zionist Union and Netanyahu’s Likud Party were quick to deny Kahlon’s claims. An unnamed Herzog associate is quoted by Jerusalem Post, saying, “Kahlon has been saying such things for a year already… it is not reality.” Meanwhile, an anonymous Likud official told Haaretz that the Zionist Union “was not about to join the government.”