Sources close to former Likud minister say candidates to be revealed at a launching event next week for faction expected to run in March election.
By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMANMoshe Kahlon(photo credit: REUTERS)
Former welfare minister Moshe Kahlon’s Kulanu registered as a party at the party registrar in Jerusalem on Thursday, making the movement he has been working on for several months a reality.Sources close to Kahlon said Kulanu’s candidates would be revealed at a launching event next week. They will try to keep the candidates list a secret after the name of the party, which was supposed to be revealed at that event, was leaked by mistake Wednesday on a day in which other headlines overshadowed the revelation.A spokesman for the party denied reports that Kulanu would run together in the March 17 election with Yesh Atid. Former Yesh Atid minister Meir Cohen suggested it was a possibility in a radio interview on Thursday morning.Kulanu also denied several names that have been reported as candidates, including former security officials, diplomats, and mayors.The name Kulanu, which means “all of us” in Hebrew, came from a statement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who when Kahlon was in the Likud, called upon his party’s politicians to be “Kahlons.” The party’s candidates will declare “We are all Kahlons.”In the forms submitted to the registrar, founders of the party included former Labor Party official Orna Angel and former Bezeq director-general Avi Gabai.While most of the goals for the party listed on the forms were socioeconomic, Kulanu also calls for “creating a diplomatic-security horizon for Israel” and “desires a diplomatic agreement with our neighbors.”
