{UAH} Netanyahu, Trailing in Polls, Offers Rival Finance Ministry
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Netanyahu, Trailing in Polls, Offers Rival Finance Ministry
(Bloomberg) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose Likud party is running second in polls ahead of Tuesday's election, offered to make a political rival finance minister in an effort to keep supporters from straying. Bank shares declined the most in 19 months.
Netanyahu told Israel Radio he would give the Treasury to Moshe Kahlon, who broke from Likud two years ago, no matter how many parliamentary seats his new Kulanu party receives. Kahlon, who as communications minister under Netanyahu brought down the price of mobile phone services by 90 percent, has criticized his former boss for failing to lower housing and living costs.
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"I think that realistically, I can't form a government without him," Netanyahu said of Kahlon. "I've said he would receive a top economic post, he will get the finance ministry, and Kahlon and I together will solve the housing and cost-of-living problem." Kahlon dismissed the offer as campaign "spin."
In the last days of the campaign, Netanyahu has been urging supporters not to defect to rivals, as Likud enters election week trailing Isaac Herzog's Zionist Union by three or four parliamentary seats in polls. Both parties fall far short of the majority needed to form a ruling coalition, and will have to form alliances with smaller factions after the vote.
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A poll publish by Yediot Ahronoth on March 13 gave Zionist Union 26 of parliament's 120 seats, Likud 22 and Kulanu 8. While parties that share Netanyahu's reluctance to make further concessions to the Palestinians would hold a narrow majority, making him better positioned to form the next government, that advantage has been shrinking.
Campaign 'Spin'Kahlon has said the next coalition must make a priority of lowering banking fees by increasing competition. The Tel Aviv Banking Index, which includes Israel's major lenders, declined 3 percent following Netanyahu's comments, the biggest drop since August 2013.
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"Banks are weaker today as investors are reluctant to buy shares due to concerns about the elections outcome," Steven Shein, a Tel Aviv-based trader at Psagot Investment House Ltd. said by phone.
Kahlon has said he could back either Netanyahu or Herzog. In response to Netanyahu's offer, he noted that the prime minister didn't follow through on a proposal before the 2013 election to appoint him head of the Israeli authority that oversees land development, a position that may have allowed him to lower home prices.
"We are 48 hours before an election and there was no doubt that spin like this would happen," Kahlon told Israel Radio. "I'm not asking the prime minister to make me finance minister, I'm asking the Israeli people."
Jerusalem ConstructionNetanyahu, who has declined to debate Herzog during the campaign, had a brief encounter with his key opponent on Channel 2 television's Saturday current affairs program. The prime minister accused the Zionist Union leader of failing to support his government's building of Jewish homes in Jerusalem neighborhoods claimed by the Palestinians, and his stance against the Iranian nuclear program.
Herzog retorted that Netanyahu's approaches to these issues had cost Israeli needed international support. "The security of Israel is dear to us more than anything else," Herzog said. "We know how to take care of it, and I will take care of it."
To contact the reporter on this story: Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem at cbendavid@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Alaa Shahine at asalha@bloomberg.net Amy Teibel, Emma Ross-Thomas
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