Moshe Kahlon

Moshe Kahlon announced a few weeks ago that he was not going to run in the Likud primaries, but would "remain" in the party. Kahlon was both the Communication minister and the Welfare minister in the current government and is known as the most socially friendly Likud Knesset member.In areas of nationalistic concern, he is a hawk. This combination of caring both about the land of Israel and the people of Israel made Moshe very popular. If he had showed as much care for the Torah of Israel, he would have become a religious Zionist saint. However, he didn't feel that he was able to accomplish enough, so he announced that he was dropping out of politics.

After his big announcement, waves of support came rolling in along with requests for him to remain in politics. A poll was conducted to see how he would fare if he started his own party based on hawkish social principals, and the results showed him getting around 20 seats. These numbers have to be discounted a bit because it was a preliminary "what if" poll, which is notorious for changing drastically as soon as someone acts on it. In the end, Moshe continued with his decision to take a hiatus from politics and he will be going to Harvard to study or teach for a year (I didn't quite understand which).

He did declare that he would not be taking any positions as he wanted to refrain from Maarit Ayin, appearances that he got a position in exchange for not starting his own party. In Hebrew the word "job" indicates a position that you got as a political favor. Generally they are given to people who aren't qualified and just sit around a collect a paycheck.

I had a conversation with someone who wants to join our local branch of the bayit Yehudi. He is very against all forms of corruption and said that if he got a job in a specific municipal office he would resign his position on the committee so it wouldn't look like he got it because of political connections. I told someone else who wants to keep this guy off the committee that he should arrange a position for him at that office and then he wouldn't have to worry about him. Oh, how politics corrupts.